
jH WORDS 



BeLFORDXlARKE ^Go CtilCMNEWMk^SA^IfRANCISCO 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, 

Sliell'_.MJ:i 






UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 




Frontispiece. 



HISTORY 



OF 



MISSOURI 



IN IVORDS OF ONE SYLLABLE. 



BY ' 

EMILY STEINESTEL MacNAMARA, 

AUTHOR OF "prince COASTWIND's VICTORY," "HISTORY OF VIRGINIA," AND TRANS- 
LATOR OF " UNDER THE STORK's NEST," " IN THE SHILLINGS COURT," 
" MARGERITE's PERIL," " THE VICAr's DIARY," " CHAIN 
OF FATE," ETC., ETC. 



WITH ILLUSTRATIONS. 





CHICAGO. NEW YORK, AND SAN FRANCISCO: 

BELFORD, CLARKE & CO. 






Copyright, 1889, by 
BELFORD, CLARKE & CO. 



PREFACE, 



It is a cherished habit with American pa- 
rents to teach their children to revere the name 
of George Washington. It may appear strange 
to my httle readers to find a less familiar face 
on the front page of a history of any part of our 
great country. 

But we must cling to facts. The American 
history of the land occupied by Missouri dates 
only from the time that the distinguished states- 
man and author of the Declaration of Indepen- 
dence was President of these United States. Let 
this be my excuse for introducing Thomas Jef- 
ferson to the boys and girls of this State. 

E. R. S. MacN. 
Columbia Heights, Brooklyn, N. Y., Sept., 1889. 



CONTENTS. 



Chapter I. Louisiana is Bought by the United States 9 

II. The French Settlers, 23 - 

III. The Red Men and the Mound-builders 32 

IV. Tlie First Steam-boat Lands at St. Louis, 44 - 

V. History of Daniel Boone, 54 

VI. The First American Settlers, 74 - 

VII. Bishop Marvin's Early Life in Missouri, 82 

VIII. Some Humorous Stories of Missourians, 93 - 

IX. Old Superstitions, ^°2 

X. Sports of the American Settlers, • . loS 

XI. Schools and Colleges, • • • ii4 

XII. Missouri Becomes a State, • • • i2x 

XIII. Flames and Death, ^26 

XIV. Joe Smith's Paradise, • -13° 

XV. The Civil War, ^39 

XVI. Camp Jackson, ^45 

XVII. Hate and Strife, . . . • • ^5i 

XVIII. The Capture of the First Secession Flag, . . . • • • ^55 

XIX. General Fremont in Missouri, i^i 

XX. Gratiot Street Prison, ^7° 

XXI. "Poor Sambo" is Made a Free Man, i74 

XXII. The War Wound Heals, iS° 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Fron-tis-piece. 

The " Big Mound" at St. Lou-is, 
Home of the French Set-tiers, 
Man-sion of Gov-ern-or McNair, 1820. 
Old "Green Tree Tav-ern," the First 

"Ho-tel " in St. Lou-is, 
House Where the First Mis-sou-ri Leg-is 

la-ture Met, St. Charles, Mo., 
State Cap-i-tol, Jef-fer-son Ci-ty, 
Great Steel Bridge at St. Lou-is, 
Pub-lie School Li-bra-ry, St. Lou-is, 
Bridge at St. Charles, Mo.. 
State School of Mines at Rol-la, 
Clay Coun-ty Court-house, Lib-er-ty, Mo. 
State U-ni-ver-si-ty, Co-Ium bi-a. Mo.. 
The Piant-ers' House, a Fa-mous Old 

Ho-tel, St. Lou-is, 
Sum-mer Re-sort on Gra-vais Road, Near 

St. Lou-is 

The Cho-teau Man-sion, First Large 

House Built in Mis-sou-ri, . 
Wil-liam Jew-ell Col-lege, Lib-er-ty, Mo. 
Mis-sou-ri Re-pub-li-can (now " Re-pub 

lie") Build-ing, St. Lou-is, . 
Pea-bod-y School, St. Lou-is, . 
St. Lou-is U-ni-ver-si-ty, . 
Cen-tral High School, St. Lou-is, . 
Ger-man Prot-es-tant The-o-log-i-cal Col- 
lege 

Ger-man Prot-es-tant Or-phan's Home 

St. Charles, Rock Road, 
St. Lou-is Sem-i-na-ry at Jen-nings' Sta 

tion, Mo., 

Con-vent of the Vis-i-ta-tion, Cass Av-e- 

nue, St. Lou-is 

Jef-fer-son School, St. Lou-is, 

Jars Found in South-east Mis-sou-ri, 

Tools of Bone Used by Mound-build-ers 

Di-a gram of St. Lou-is Mounds, 

St. Lou-is Ca-the-dral, Found-ed 1776, 

First Prot-es-tant Church in Mis-sou-ri, 

St. Al-phon-sus Church, St. Lou-is, 

Pil-grim Con-gre-ga-tion-al Church, St 

Lou-is 

Grace Church, Kan-sas Ci-ty, . 
George Knapp, ..... 
Lake in La-fay-ette Park, St. Lou-is, . 

Dan-iel Boone 

In the Wilds of Mis-sou-ri, 

Dan-iel Boone's School-days, . 

Wash-ing-ton U-ni-ver-si-ty, St. Lou-is, 

Ir-ving School, Kan-sas Ci-ty, . 

St. Pe-ter and Paul's Church, St. Lou-is, 



St. Mark's Eng-lish Lu-ther-an Church, 
St. Lou-is, ...... 

He-brew Tem-ple of the Gates of Truth. 

Dan-iel Boone's Log Cab-in, . 

Sec-ond Bap-tist Church, St. Lou-is, 

Dan-iel Boone Tries on His Cof-fin, 

House Where Boone Died, 

First Pres-by-te-ri-an Church, St. Lou-is, 

Board of Trade Build-ing, Kan-sas Ci-ty, 

New High Scliool Build-ing, St. Lou-is, 

A Pi-o-neer Fam-i-ly, 

On the Way to CImrch in 1820, 

Ex-pos-i-tion Building, Kan-sas Ci-ty, 

Kan-sas Ci-ty Club-house, 

New Court-house, Kan-sas Ci-ty, 

St. George's Church, St. Lou is. 

New Odd Fellows' Hall, St. Lou-is, 

Ter-race Shaw's Gar-den, St. Lou-is, 

Mr. Bur-dine Tries to Weigh His Wife, 

The " Steed" Mr. Rice Rode in 1825, 

Kan-sas Ci-ty "Times" Build-ing, . 

Christ Churcli, St. Lou-is, 

Lake and Grot-to, Fair Grounds, St 

Lou-is 

Des Peres School, St. Lou-is, Where First 

Kindergarten Was Held, 
Bear Pits, Fair Grounds, St. Lou-is, 
St. Lou-is Jock-ey Club-house, Faii 

Grounds, ..... 

South Pass Jetties to the Mis-sis sip-pi. 
The Book of Mor-mon, ... 

Joe Smith's Home 

Scene in Coun-ty Pem-iscot, . 
Guard House, La fay-ette Park, St. Lou-is, 
Scene in La-fay-ette Coun-ty, . 
Gen-eral Ly-on, .... 

St. Lou-is Ar-sen-al in 1861, 

J. C. Fre-mont 

The Brant Man-sion, Fre-mont's Head 

quar-ters, St. Lou- is, 
Gen-er-al Sterling Price, 
J. O. O. Shelby, .... 
Old Gra-ti-ot Street Pris-on, . 
Mis-sou-ri Med-i-cal Col-lege, St. Lou-is, 173 
Thom-as C. Fletch-er, First Re-pub-li-can 
Gov-ern-or of An-y Slave State, . . 175 

Pluck Brings Luck 178 

St. Lou-is Ex-pos-i-tion Build-ing and 

Music Hall, 179 

Da-vid R. Fran-cis, Gov-ern-or of Mis- 
sou-ri, . . . . . . .183 

The Streets of St. Lou-is " Veiled Proph- 
et's " Week, 185 



65 
66 
68 
69 

70 
71 
73 

75 

n 
80 

83 

86 

89 

94 
96 
100 
103 
104 
109 
III 
113 

117 

119 
123 

127 
129 
132 
134 
136 
138 
143 
154 
156 
160 

162 
163 
166 
171 



HISTORY OF MISSOURI. 



CHAPTER I. 

LOUISIANA IS BOUGHT BY THE UNITED STATES. 

In the old, old days, of which we have no date, 
a tribe of Red men made their camp on the banks 
of a long, swift stream. They were on the chase, or 
''big hunt." In those days the chiefs of tribes who 
w^ere not at war met twice a year, in the Spring and 
in the Fall, to go far from their towns to hunt the 
buf-fa-lo and elk, or such great game as then ran 
wild o'er all our land. 

It was on one of these trips that the Red men 
came to this swift stream. The chase had been hot 
and the Red men were dry with thirst, and the sight 
of wa-ter made them glad. 

One of the first to get to the bank where he 
could bend to drink had scarce wet his lips when 
he drew back with a wry face and a grunt, and said 
to those who stood near: 

"Mis-sou-ri!" 



lo History of Missohri. 

The word in our tongue means " thick with mud." 
The tribe gave the name to the stream, and when 
white men came they gave that name to the tribe of 
Red men they found near the stream, but the land 
did not get the name till 1812. 

It is said that white men trod the land here as 
far back as 1541. That De So-to and his men 
came this far in search of gold the same year that 
he first saw the great stream Mis-sis-sip-pi from the 
then wild shores of what is now the Ci-ty of Mem- 
phis. 

We have no proof that such was the case, but 
we know that it was not till the year 1682 that white 
men, with Rob-ert de La Salle at their head, had 
laid claim to the whole of this part of our land for 
their King, Lou-is XIV. of France, and gave it the 
name of Lou-i-si-a-na. But wars in the old lands in 
time wrought a change in the claims here; the kings 
of Spain and France each laid claim to the land. 
At last, in the year 1762, Spain got the right to rule 
by a grant from France. 

The French here did not like this. They had 
built up towns and made the land what it was by 
their toil. The posts of trade were made by them. 
They had their wives and homes here, hence their 
hearts were with the land. The Span-ish did not 
much for the good of the land. 



1 2 History of Missotiri. 

They did not have a thought to make this their 
home for all time. They came to take care of the 
land for the King, but not to live and die here. 

Some of these men were bad, and made life hard 
for the French. 

The last Com-mand-ant who had charge of the 







HOME OF THE FRENCH SET-TLERS. 



land here for Spain was a French-man by the name 
of Charles De-las-sus, a kind, good man, who did all 
he could for his race here. So life went on at last 
in peace, till the acts of Bo-na-parte, with his strife 
in the Old World, made Spain cede to France the 
land known as Lou-i-si-a-na in the New World. 



Louisiana is Bottght by the United States. 



13 



This was in 1800. In 1803 Bo-na-parte had 
need of all the funds he could raise to make war on 
Eng-land once more. So he bade his Min-is-ter of 
Treas-u-ry tell the Min-is-ters to France from our 
Gov-ern-ment (Mr. Mon-roe and Mr. Liv-ings-ton 
sent to the Court of France by the Pres-i-dent, 
Thom-as Jef-fer-son) that the U-nit-ed States could 




MAN-SION OF GOV-ERIM-OR m'naIR, 1S20 

buy the whole of that vast tract of land (once known 
as Lou-i-si-a-na) for $15,000,000. 

Mr. Jef-fer-son, who knew the great worth of the 
land, was quick to grasp at this chance to buy ; and 
Con-gress soon saw the good of such a deal ; so, ere 
the new year of 1 804, Lou-i-si-a-na was our Gov-ern- 
ment's land. 

A line was then drawn throuo^h the vast tract, 



14 History of Missouri. 

and the land to the south of it should be known as 
the Ter-ri-to-ry of Or-le-ans, that to the north as the 
Dis-trict of Lou-i-si-a-na. A change in the names 
took place in 1812. From that time the land on 
the north side was known as the Ter-ri-to-ry of Mis- 
sou-ri, 

'' Ter-ri-to-ry" means a tract of land which is not 
yet in the Un-ion of States, though our Gov-ern- 




OLD "green tree TAV-ERN," THE FIRST " HO-TEl'' IN ST. LOU-IS. 

ment cares for it, and the Pres-i-dent can send some 
one to rule and make laws for the good of those who 
live there. 

In time towns spring up and folks spread and 
thrive, and soon can count so strong that they 
wish to choose their own men to make laws and 
rules to suit their needs. Then they ask to be 



Louisiana is Bought by the United States. 



15 



made a State to be part of the Un-ion and have 

their say as to who shall be chief. While they live 

in a Ter-ri-to-ry they can have no voice in such things. 

This did not suit the men in Mis-sou-ri lone, I 




HOUSE WHERE THE FIRST MTS-SOU-RI LEG-IS-LA-TURE MET, ST. CHARLES, MO. 

can tell you. They soon came to the door of the 
Un-ion and said : 

'' Lift the latch and let us in !" 
But this could not be done in such haste ; for 



1 6 History of Alissouri. 

Mis-sou-ri did not wish to come in as a "free soil" 
State. 

A great cry had gone up in the north and east 
for some years, and the slave trade was the cause of 
it. When slaves were first brouorht to this land it 
was not thought to be a crime to buy and sell black 
men. White men were at times sold then for some 
bad deed they had done. 

In Vir-gin-ia, in the old times, the first girls 
brought from the old land were sold to men to serve 
as wives. But the white race would not be kept 
slaves, and soon, by their own worth, rose to stand 
side by side with those who bought them, and who 
had no wish to keep them down. 

Black slaves were kept in all the States at first, 
but in the North the need for that race of men who 
could stand the heat of toil in the fields was not 
great, so there were but few slaves. These were 
made free men in the course of time. 

The New Eng-land States led the cry for '' free 
soil" o'er all the land, and such States as were 
know as free States now took a firm stand that no 
more slave States should come in the Un-ion, for 
fear these States might get to be so strong in num- 
bers that the voice of the men sent from them to 
speak for their States would come to rule the whole 
land. 




lilliiilil^iiirfi 



1 8 History of Missouri. 

It was the hope and ahn of the men in the North 
to make an end to the slave trade, and hot words 
were said, and ill will grew out of this theme 'twixt 
North and South. For more than two years the war 
of words was kept up in the Halls of Con-gress ere 
a Bill was drawn by which Mis-sou-ri could at last 
take a place in the Un-ion of States. This Bill is 
known as the Mis-sou-ri Com-pro-mise. By this 
plan our State could come in with such slaves as 




GREAT STEEL BRIDGE AT ST. LOU-IS. 



were on her soil ; but from that time on all lands 
north of this line must be free soil. 

In 1820 Mis-sou-ri got to be a State, and in 
1 82 1 one more star shone on the flag of our Un-ion 
to tell the world of the birth of a new State, whose 
mot-to is, "The wel-fare of the peo-ple is the Su- 
preme Law !" 

There has been some change in the form of the 
land since white folks came to dwell there, for in 



Louisiana is Bought by the United States. 



19 



the years 181 1 and 181 2 there were hard earth- 
quakes, when, hke a flash, dry lands were sunk 
deep In the earth to fill with wa-ter, and where streams 
had been the ground rose up to form dry lands and 
hills. 

In some parts of the Ci-ty ot St. Lou-is, right 




PUB-LIC SCHOOL LI-BRA-RY, ST. LOU-IS. 



near the place where the old Web-ster school stands, 
in the north end of the town, great sink-holes so 
big and deep were made, that one might think the 
earth had been dug; out for soil to farm the O-zark 
Moun-tains with. 

But the skill of man has left no trace of these 



20 



History of Missouri. 



great earth-quake dents. Fine streets, sweet homes, 
and big schools have spread o'er the lands made 
firm and smooth by the toil of man in one short life- 
time. 

Try and think you are high up in an air-ship, 
and can look down from your perch on the 65,350 
square miles of earth that form our State. Is it not 
a fine scene ? Here you see vast fields of corn, 
to-bac-co, and fruits. The hills look as if a drape 




BRIDGE AT ST. CHARLES, MO. 



of leaves and vines hung on them, with grapes so 
thick you could not count them. How grand and 
green are the great tracts of wood-land! Thir-ty 
kinds of trees, we are told, can be found in our State. 
How big and fat the live-stock is that you can see 
graze here ! The skill of man has but to touch the 
soil, and lo ! the earth parts to show the wealth in 
her breast. Coal and ore and rich min-er-al lie 
there for all who care to look for it. 



Louisiana is Bought by the United States. 



21 



Now let your glance rove o'er that "long, great 
stream " to which the Red men gave the name of 
Mis-sis-sip-pi. Do you see where its clear wa-ters 
rush by the mouth of the Mis-sou-ri and just touch 
the lips of the Il-li-nois? The three streams meet 
twen-ty miles north of St. Lou-is. If you take a 




STATE SCHOOL OF MINES AT ROL-LA. 

trip up the riv-er you must look for a curl and whirl 
of three shades of wa-ter that meet here, but do not 
mix. You can tell the Mis-sou-ri at once by its 
fine mud tints. What fame it has made for us! 
I heard a New York man ask a friend from St. 



22 History of Missotwi. 

Lou-is, who had stood up brave in the face of much 
ill luck: 




CLAY COUN-TY COURT-HOUSE, T.TB-KR-TY, MO, 



*'I say — where do you get all your grit from? 
Do you take it with your wa-ter?" 



The French Settlers. 23 



CHAPTER II. 

THE FRENCH SETTLERS. 

In the year 1720 there came from France a man 
by the name Re-nault. He brought with him 200 
white men and 500 slaves to work the mines on 
lands where gold and ore might be found. His 
camp was first made on the east banks of the Mis- 
sis-sip-pi, but when he found fine lead-mines on the 
west side of the stream he came to camp on the soil 
of what was to be Mis-sou-ri. Here a town or sprang 
up in 1735 known as Le Grand Camp, or le vieux 
village cle Sainte Gen-e-vieve. 

This is the first town built in Mis-sou-ri. In 
1785 a great flood swept o'er the land, and the folks 
in the old town had to leave. 

They built their new homes three miles from the 
old site, some six-ty miles from St. Lou-is ; and in 
the St. Gen-e-vieve of this day will be found the sons 
of those who first had the nerve to till the soil of our 
State and give it the face of home. 

The names of some of the men who built up this 
town are known to us all to this day. The chief 



24 



History of Missouri. 



men were Fran-cois Val-le, Jean Bap-tiste Mau-rice, 
Fran-cois Cole-man, Jaques Boy-er, Hen-ri Mau- 
rice, Par-falt Da-four, Jo-seph Be-quet-te, Jean Thor- 
mure, Jo-seph Gov-reau, Lou-is Bois-due, Jean St. 
Gem-me, L. Ga-bou-ry, J. Beau-rais, B. N. Jan-is, 
J. B. Prat-te, and some whose names I could not 




STATE U-NI-VER-SI-TY, CO-LUM-BI-A, MO. 



find out, though the names of all those who first 
built up a land should be put in the tales of that 
land. 

The next place to be made a town was but a 
small spot on the Mis-sou-ri Riv-er, the Vil-lage 



26 



History of Missotiri. 




du Cote, laid out in 
1762. That ''small 
town" is now St. 
Charles. 

In Au-gust, 1763, 
Pierre La-clede Li- 
quest came from 
New Or-le-ans with 
a laro^e load of wods 
to trade with the Red 
men and seek a fine 
tract of land to found 
a new town. The 
heights where St. 
Lou-is is built struck 
him as just the spot 
for his plan. 

The next year 
Au-guste Chou-teau, 
La-clede's aid, had 
the land made clear 
for a large town, to 
which La-clede gave 
the name of St. Lou- 
is, for his King, Lou- 
is XV. of France. 

The sketch you 
see here is the first 



The French Settlers. 



27 



large well-built house put up in the town. 'Tis the 
first home of the well-known race of Chou-teaus. 

Up to this date St. Ange de Belle-rive, the chief 
man here for the French Gov-ern-ment, had his 
camp in a place in Il-li-nois known as Fort Char- 
tres. He now came to St. Lou-is with his troops, 
and so this town got to be the one of great note. 
Here all the men 
came to trade, and 
here the com-merce 
of the State made its 
nest in those days, 
just as it does in our 
day on so vast a 
scale. 

How quaint 
those old towns 
would look to us! 
How nice it must 
have been to see 

lands laid out like one vast field in which each man 
had a share to till and to reap and take care of! 
All were good friends. They could go from house 
to house and share in the home cheer. Would you 
not like to have a peep at the wee French boys and 
girls in their dress of chintz, with such small moc- 
ca-sins on their feet that one could wish a pair of 




THE CHOU-TEAU MAN-SION, FIRST LARGE HOUSE 
BUILT IN MIS-SOU-RI. 



28 History of Alissouri. 

them might be had now, to prize with the choice 
things of a bric-a-brac case. 

The men wore wide pants made of coarse cot-ton 
cloth, with a bright shirt ; a wide belt held the pants 
in place. At times a blan-ket with a hood was worn 




WIL-LIAM JEW-ELL COL-LEGE, LIB-ER-TY, MO. 



by the men on the streets. Their shoes, like those 
of wife and child, were moc-ca-sins. The wife and 
maid wore chintz skirts, a sack waist, a bright 'ker- 
chief at the throat, when the dress was one of state. 



The French Settlers. 



29 



They did not have great wealth, but none were 
so poor that they had to take alms. They knew 
how to have a good time in their way, as well as we 
do in these days, and how they did love to dance ! 

Mr. Fir-min A. Ro- 
zier, who tells of these 
" French cus-toms," says 
they had what is known 
as the King's ball. At 
such times a big cake was 
made, in which four beans 
were put. When it was 
cut, each man got a slice, 
and the ones who drew 
the beans were made the 
kings of the next ball. 
They then chose their 
queens, to whom they gave 
^^ ^ - « ^^A some nice mft. 

^BL^ « ^^^^> The old folks were not 

left out in the cold at 
such times. Two quite 
old folks were made chief 
of the house for the time, and they had the right to 
say who "should o-pen the ball." Then the "fid- 
dle " struck up, young men and maids made their 
best bows, and the fun went on till it was time to 





MIS-SOU-RI RE-PUB I,T-CAN (nOW " RE-PUB- 
LIC") BUILD-ING, ST. LOU-IS. 



30 History of Missoiiri. 

feast, when bouil-lon, bis-cuit, coffee, and a cake hard 
and crisp, cro-quig-nolles by name, gave new hfe to 
the scene. 




PEA-BOD-Y SCHOOL, ST. LOU-IS. 



(The Ames, Bates, Ben-ton, Car-on-de-Iet, Carr Lane. Car-roll, Clav, Clin-ton, Di-voll, Doug-lass, 

El-i-ot, Hum-boldt, Irving, La-clede, Lin-coln, Ly-on, Mad-i-son, O'Fal-lon, 

Pope, and Sum-ner Schools are built'in this style.) 

The coach of that day is a thing to make note of. 
It had two wheels made of white oak, the hubs were 
of gum-wood, the frame was just a pair of strong 



The French Scttle7's. 



'Kl 



poles on which things could rest. It was in use for 
all sorts of farm work. When a dame thought it 
was time to call on a friend who did not live close 
by, a chair was tied to this frame, and there was 
the State coach all in trim. If the roads were bad 




ST. LOU-IS U-NI-VER-SI-TY. 



two or more hors-es were put in the raw-hide har- 
ness, just as we would drive tan-dem in our time, 
and so the trip was made in high style. 

On New Years night the folks had lots of fun. 
They first went to mass, for most all the French of 



32 History of Missouri. 

that date were good Cath-o-lics, and ere they gave 
their thoughts to mirth they bent the knee to Him 
Who gave them all of good in life. 

But there was no sin in the fun they had. Old 
and young just put on some odd style of dress to 
make folks laugh, then they went from house to 
house to sing and dance. This was the Guig-no-lee, 
or good-cheer sport for the New Year. 



CHAPTER HI. 

THE RED MEN AND THE MOUND-BUILDERS. 

You must not think that these first French folks 
had things all their own way when they came here. 
The Red man had his home North, South, East, 
and West ; so the white man found him here as well. 

Just bear this fact in mind, that the Red man 
did not make war on the whites till the tricks and 
false ways of the whites put them on their guard, 
and taught them they must fight and act if they did 
not wish to see the whites spread step by step, rob 
them of their game, and at last drive them from 
their own soil. 



The Red Men and the Monnd-biiildej's. 



zz 



But the French were good friends to the tribes 
they found here, and the time came when their kind 
acts to these tried souls brouo^ht them aid in times 



"^^^^^ 




CEN-TRAL HIGH SCHOOL, ST. LOU-ISo 



when harm would have come to the whites but for 

these In-dians, who gave good deeds for good deeds. 

A tribe known as Cha-wa-nous, who had their 



34 



History of JMissoiiri. 



towns here, were more like white men in their mode 
of hfe than most of the Red men in this land. 

They did not live in wig-wams, but in big huts 
made of logs, and built so that storms could not beat 
through. 

They knew of the art of self help in case of war 
with bad tribes that at tmies came to break in on 




GER-MAN PROT-ES-TANT THE-0-LOG-T-C AL COL-LEGE. 

their way of life. It may be that some white man 
who came here with bands in search of gold, years 
and years gone by, stayed with this tribe and taught 
them such things. 

The squaws knew how to dress with taste, 
though it* had the charm of a wild style, to be sure. 
They knew how to till the soil, to plant and glean. 



The Red Men and the JMonnd-hnilders. 



35 



and they knew that there was a God Who could see 
their acts. They gave Him the name Great Spir-it. 
They gave praise in a way all their own, twice a 
year. In the spring when the grain was put in the 
ground, and in the month when the grain was ripe 
they held great feasts, to show how glad they were 
for the eood things of earth. 




GER-MAN PROT-ES-TANT OR-PHANS' HOME, ST. CHARLES, ROCK ROAD. 

Of love and grief these Red folks too had their 
share. A tale is told of the bright young sis-ter of 
the fierce and proud chief Te-cum-seh. She went 
from her home at St. Gen-e-vieve to see some friends 
with a tribe who had their camp near New Mad-rid. 



36 History of Missouri. 

Here she met Fran-(^ois Mai-son-vllle, a French- 
man, who fell in love with her. She gave him her 
heart and hand and they were wed. 

When the great Shaw-nee chief heard of it he 
got so wroth that he put on war-paint and came to 
Mis-sou-ri in a fine rage, and took his sis-ter from 
the man of her choice and made her go back to her 
folks. 

But Te-cum-seh did not have time to stay and 
watch the bride. He had blood in his eye. He 
gave the poor girl a wild glare that he thought would 
dry up all the love in her heart, then went forth to 
drum up Red friends of his own to go to war with 
him at home. As soon as he was gone the bride 
fled to her dear one at New Mad-rid, where the two 
set up house, and had a fine lot of boys and girls. 
Some of their race still thrive in the old town. 

In those days the French had no cause to fear 
the Red men. Not till the Brit-ish came to Il-li- 
nois and put bad thoughts in the hearts of the In- 
dians was there need of forts on the west side of the 
Mis-sis-sip-pi. Some tramp tribes came once in a 
while, with quills in their hair and war-paint on- 
their skin, and gave the white folks a great scare 
with their wild yells. But at no time was there great 
fear of blood shed till the A-mer-i-can Col-o-nists 
went to war with Great Brit-ain. The French all 



The Red i\le7i and the Afoiind-biiilders. 



Z7 



through this part of the land were heart and soul 
with the brave men who tried to throw off the yoke 
put on them by Eng-land. 

This made the Eng-lish mad, and the troops in 
Il-li-nois did their best to stir up ill-will and hate for 
the white men who did not side with them and the 



'-^ ll5fii2*ff>« 








ST. LOU-IS SEM-I-NA-RY, AT JEN-NINGS STA-TION, MO. 



King's cause 



But ere that time the French and 
the In-dians were good friends. The priests who 
spoke their tongue taught some of the Red men 
how to read and write, and told them of our Lord, 
and got not a few of them to join the church. They 



3^ Histcny of Missouri 

saw how the priests could heal the sick, bind up 
wounds, or set a leg as well as pray, so thev gave 
them the name of big med-i-cine chiefs. 

It was at the time St. Lou-is was laid out that 
France gave all her lands on the east side of the 
Mis-sis-sip-pi to Great Brit-ain, and that on the 
west to Spain. But the folks were all French, for 




CON-VENT OF THE VIS-I-TA-TION, CASS AV-E-NUE, ST. LOU-IS. 

the Span-ish did not come here to live and did not 
fight hard to rule. 

Spain sent troops to claim the land, and the 
French just let them " claim," but went right on in 
their own way in peace. Not so with the French 
m Il-li-nois. They did not like the Eng-lish rule, 



40 History of Jl/issouri. 

and left their homes to join their luck with the Mis- 
sou-ri folks and their old com-mand-er, St. Ange De 
Belle-rive, who was the chief till 1770, when Spain 
at last put a man of their own race in his place. 

On such good terms were the French and the 
Red men that the chiefs of tribes came m state to 
call on the French Com-mand-er. In 1769 the 
great Ot-ta-wa chief Pon-ti-ac came to smoke a 
friend's pipe, and eat of his salt, and chat with 
St. Ange de Belle-rive at St. Louis. From here he 
went to a feast at Pa-ho-kia, when he was slain by 
one of the Kas-kas-kia tribe of Red Men. It was 
found out that one of the Eng-lish trad-ers had put 
the In-dian up to do the deed. The Kas-kas-kias 
had to pay for it, all the same ; for the rage of the 
Ot-ta-was was so great that they knew no rest till the 
last of the tribe was swept from the land. The 
chief was brought to St. Lou-is and laid to rest in a 
spot of earth green with shrub and tree, and sweet 
with song of wild birds, near the place now known 
as Broad-way and Cher-ry Streets. 

The race of Red men will pass from our day, 
and, in time to come, the bones and beads and arms 
found in their graves is all that will be left to tell 
that such a strange racelof men once were kings of 
this land. So we now try to find a trace of a race 
that once had homes here ere the Red man's time. 




JARS FOUND IN SOUTH-EAST MIS-SOU-RI 



42 



W( 



History of Missouri. 

call them the '' Mouncl-build-ers." They 



were a race of men of more brain than the Red men, 
for they took pains to mark the earth and the rocks 
in such a way that time could not wipe out the fact 
that such a race had lived. The In-dians have no 




TOOLS OF BONE USED BY MOUND-BUILD-ERS. 

such care or pride of race. They were born just to 
get through life with few wants and no high aims 
that would prove steps to lead up to great deeds. 
To hunt, eat, drink, sleep, and now and then fight, 
will sum up the tale of an In-dian's life. 



The Red Alcn and the j\Io2tnd-biiilde7's. 43 

But the Mound-build-ers must have had an aim 
and a taste for the fine arts. It is but in late years 
that men of sci-ence made note of the strange fact 
that St. Lou-is was built on a well laid-out plan of 
large and small mounds. 

It was at first thought that these hills were made 
by the Red men, and for years they were known as 
''In-dian Mounds," in which the Red men laid their 
dead. But as these mounds had to give place to 
the thrift of our own race, and the earth was dug 
down to clear the 
way for the streets » ^ ^ 

of a big town, in the 
heart of these strange 
mounds were found 
queer works of art, 
jars and urns made 



of clay, with marks "^ ® o ^ofst.L^ smo ® 

on them to prove 

that they had been made by a race that gave thought 

to the work. 

Rocks have been found with signs on them 
that must have been put there by men whose 
aim was to leave prints that time could not wear 
out. 

We know the Red men of our age did not toil 
nor build. Who, then, were these men who left 



44 History of Missouri. 

such signs on the face of the earth to tell us that a 
race with mind and brain so much like ours were 
once lords of the soil ? 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE FIRST STEAM-BOAT AT ST. LOUIS. 

The French who first came to Mis-sou-ri brought 
with them the faith of the Cath-o-lic Church. Both 
Spain and France kept up this faith, though no 
force was put on those not of that church to take 
part in it, nor were they made to pay a tax to help 
keep it up. 

This was not the case with the Eng-lish Col-o- 
nists. They were one and all made to pay tithes to 
the Crown for the Church of Eng-land, though most 
of the folks were not of that church. 

While Spain had the right to rule in Mis-sou-ri, 
there was a law made to keep the Prot-es-tant faith 
out of the place. There was no Prot-es-tant church 
and no one to preach the faith, but at times a 
preach-er came from Il-li-nois, and then the Prot-es- 



The First Steam-boat at St. Louis. 



45 



tants would all meet in some house to sing and pray 
and hear him preach in spite of the laws of Spain. 

These laws may have been strict, but the chief 
in corn-mand did not press them on the folks. It is 
told of a man by the name of John Clark that he 
rode through sun or 
storm, cold or hot days, 
through the slush and 
mire of the low-lands 
of Il-li-nois to bring the 
^'Wordof God" to the 
few of his faith in Mis- 
sou-ri. The Span-ish 
Com-mand-er of course 
knew when he came, 
but he did not act as 
if he knew it till Clark 
had gone his rounds ; 
then all at once he 
made a big hue and 
cry, and said with a 
great show of rage : 

"What! do I hear 
that John Clark is here once more ? The her-e-tic ! 
Tell him to make tracks out of the place with all 
speed. If I catch him the next time he comes, I'll 
jug him up. This is the last time I will warn him ! 




ST. LOU-IS CA-THE-DRAL, FOUND-ED 1776. 



46 History of Alissoiiri. 

Let him be off! If he is in town an hour hence I'll 
box him up !" 

To John Clark that was an old tune; but he put 
on a look as if he were in fear of his life, put his horse 
to its best trot, and got out of town with a sly smile 
on his face that said, as plain as could be, that 




FIRST PROT-EST-ANT CHURCH IN MIS-SOU-RI. 

this joke made his trip a good deal less dull than 
if he did not have to wind it up with a race for 
free-dom. 

There was no Prot-es-tant church built in Mis- 
sou-ri till the year 1806; then the Beth-el Bap-tist 



The First Steam-boat at St. Louis. 47 

''meet-ing-house" was put up in Jack-son, Cape Gir- 
ar-den County, David Green, Pastor. 

How proud these good folks must have been the 
first time their songs of praise rang out through the 
rents in those great logs of which the " church " was 
built. 

I guess they did not pass round the plate then, 
for they had no cash to give. They had to use deer- 
skins for coin for a long while. Or they would 
trade off one thing, and take for it some such thing 
as they were in need of. Real coin was scarce, and 
small coin rare, but those smart men knew how to 
make change in a way all their own. 

They would cut a large coin in four or eight 
parts, each worth just so much, and call each part a 
*' bit." This is the way we came by the '' two bits," 
''four bits," and so on, that cause folks in the East 
to smile at what they term our back-woods talk. 
Our '' two bits" is worth just as much as their '' two 
shil-ling," which sounds quite as queer to those who 
first hear that word in use. 

Those in the East cling to the Eng-lish names. 
They do not seem to bear in mind that in Mis-sou-ri 
in the old days men in trade had to pick out short 
words to fit the use of the time, and make sense of it 
for those who had to trade with men who spoke a 
strange tongue. 



48 



History of Missotiri. 



Da-vis and Dur-rie, in their His-to-ry of our State, 
say that up to the year 1804 there were but two 
A-mer-i-can fam-i-hes in the place, so we can see 
Eng-hsh was but in use when men came from the 
A-mer-i-can shore in Il-h-nois to deal with the 
French in St. Lou-is. All the needs of life in the 




ST. AL-PHON-SUS CHURCH, ST. LOU-IS. 



way of food and stores were brought from New Or- 
le-ans by boat. 

It took five months to make the trip. When a 
boat set sail, the folks came from far and near to see 
it sail. Those who had friends on board would 



The First Steam-boat at St. Louis. 



49 



stand with tears In their eyes, and sad, sad hearts, 
for fear they would see their dear ones no more. 

The small girls 
and boys did not eat 
as much sweet stuff 
as the young folks 
do now, for sug-ar 
was two dol-lars a 
pound. 

'^High teas" 
were not in style 
with the dames of 
the St. Lou-is of 
those days. Tea 
could not be had at 
all till our Gov-ern- 
ment bought the 
land, then there was 
a change to make 
the heart glad. 
A-mer-i-cans came 
from Ken-tuck-y 
and Vir-gin-ia, and 
brought news, life, 
and fresh pluck to 
help build up the new Ter-ri-to-ry. 

The small floats in use to brino- folks from the 




PIL-GRIM CON-GRE-GA-TION-AL CHURCH, ST. LOU-IS. 



50 



History of Missouri. 



east shore gave place to large boats that would hold 
teams as well as men. Trade got to be so brisk 
that men felt safe to place their cash in such stores 
as the needs of a live town would call for. 




GRACE CHURCH, KAN-SAS CI-TY. 



In 1804 St. Lou-is got the first sign of kin with 
the U-nit-ed States by a post-of-fice set up by our 
Gov-ern-ment. 

A Mr. Rotch-ford was the first man to teach 





^ ^^^>^^^,z- 




^^^ 



52 



History of Missouri. 



school. Then George Tomp-kins, a young man 
from Vir-gin-ia, came to start a school and read law 
when not at work with his boys. He got to be 
Chief-jus-tice of Mis-sou-ri. In 1808 the first news- 
pa-per in St. Lou-is was born. It is the Re-pub-lic 
now. 




LAKE IN T.A-FAY-ETTE PARK, ST. LOU-IS. 



The chief trade with the States was in furs at that 
time. Bands of men would form to make trips in the 
dense wilds of Mis-sou-ri to trap and hunt, and the 
skins they brought back was the source of vast wealth 
to some of the well-known men East and West. 



The First Steavi-boat at St. Louis. 53 

But the great day for Mls-sou-ri was the 2d of 
Au-gust, 181 7. On that date great and small, white, 
red, and black folks in St. Lou-is saw a thing glide 
up the Mis-sis-sip-pi that made some hearts quake, 
and the hair on black heads stand up as if it were 
not made to kink, and the dark skin turn blue with 
fright. 

This thing came on with puffs and snorts that 
sent out sparks and thick black smoke. As it made 
a curve near the town it gave a loud shrill shriek 
that could be heard for miles up and down the land. 
Crowds of men and boys were at the edge of the 
stream to see it land at the foot of Mar-ket Street, 
but those who did not know what it was thought 
the strange '' beast" would creep up on the land and 
make a meal of them, no doubt ; but when they 
heard that shriek, they took to their heels and ran 
for dear life, and those who were the most fleet of 
foot in this race were a lot of In-dians who were in 
town that day. It was long ere they had faith in 
the words of those who told them that this '' thing" 
was made by the skill of. man, and that it did its 
work by steam. 

It was the Gen-er-al Pike, the first steam-boat to 
make its way through the snags of the '' mighty 
Mis-sis-sip-pi." 



54 History of Missouri. 



CHAPTER V. 

HISTORY OF DANIEL BOONE. 

Up to the year 1795 there was no path made 
through the wilds of Mis-sou-ri. The '' Trad-ing 
Posts" of the French were on the banks of the chief 
streams. 

At this time there were four such towns or 
'* posts :" St. Lou-is, St. Gen-e-vieve, St. Charles, 
and Car-on-de-let ; but the first white man to break 
the ground of the soil far back in the gloom of the 
dense woods was an A-mer-i-can, Dan-i-el Boone. 
He was born in '' Phil-a-del-phi-a County, Ex-e-ter 
town-ship, Penn-syl-va-nia."* His home was in a 
wild spot, where fierce beasts came close to the 
house to prowl in search of food ; the scent of fresh 
shot game led them at times right to the door. You 
may well know that the use of gun and knife was 
taught the lads of that day when they were quite 
young. 

Dan-i-el had a quick eye and a firm hand. 

* Quot-ed from Dr. John P. Hale's ar-ti-cles on Boone, in the St. 
Lou-is Re-pub-li-can. 




55 



56 History of Missouri. 

When he was still a small boy he went out to hunt 
with some young friends one day ; they had not 
gone far when a strange sound like a child's shrill 
cry rang out o'er their heads. They well knew what 
it was, and the boys fled, pale with fear. Not so 
Dan-i-el ; swift as a flash his glance caught the gleam 
of a pair of fierce eyes. Bang ! 

Just as the beast, a big pan-ther, made a spring 
for him, a ball found his heart and he fell dead at 
Dan-i-el's feet. 

That is the kind of a shot he was when a boy. 
As man his aim was just as quick and true. He 
knew not what fear was. 

I grieve to tell you that he knew the use of his 
fists as well as his gun. That he was a bad boy at 
school, and would not keep his nose well down on 
his book, nor his eyes bent on his task so that 
his teach-er was proud to say to his pa and ma, 
*' Dan-i-el is the pride of my life, and knows more 
than all the rest in the school." 

No. Dan-i-el would not stick to his books, and 
he was not his teach-er's pet. But he was the pride 
and pet of his school-mates, for he was bright, brave, 
and strong. 

The school-house was a log hut, the door of 
which was made of the dried skins of wild beasts. 
Light and air was let in from the roof, one of the 



History of Daniel Boone. 



57 



logs there would be let down with straps of hide to 
form a win-dow. 




IN THE WILDS OF MIS-SOU-RI. 



It was not safe to leave the door down for fear 
wild beasts might creep in and harm the boys. 



58 Histoi'y of Missouri. 

Pegs made of wood had to serve for nails and hinges 
in those days. 

The teach-er did not make pets of his boys, but 
the poor man had a pet. It did him more harm 
than the boys. It was a flask with a *' wee drop" in 
it, of which the teach-er was o'er fond. 

He would hide it in the woods, where he could 
get at it once in a while when he got dry of tongue. 
The boys did not know why he had to leave the 
room to get a '' sniff of air," as he said, but he came 
back each time more red and cross than when he 
went out. 

One day Dan-i-el found the flask. Then he told 
the boys to watch out for fun, for he had put some 
.stuff in the flask that he knew would make the 
teach-er so sick that he would need all the air he 
could get right quick. 

You can guess how full of laugh those bad boys 
were when the teach-er left the room, but oh, how 
cross he was when he got back ! 

Dan-i-el, who did not quite know his task, was 
told to march up to the desk. The teach-er was 
just in a mood to flog him. At the first blow Dan- 
i-el struck out with his fist and sent the man to the 
ground. This set the boy in a roar of glee. 

"Do you think I'll let a man who drinks such 
stuff as you do on the sly strike me?" said Dan-i-el, 



History of Daniel Boone. 59 

as he ran out of the place ere the man could rise to 
his feet, half tight, and ill as he was with the dose 
young Boone had put in the flask. 

Dan's pa and ma had to scold him, of course, 
but the teach-er had to leave the place when folks 
found out what kind of a man he was. So this was 




DAN-I-EL BOONe's SCHOOL-DAYS. 



the last of Dan-i-el's school-days. The Boones soon 
left Penn-syl-va-ni-a, and made their home in North 
Car-o-li-na. 

Here Dan made his name known when a youth 
of eigh-teen by the bold way he stood in the face of 
a herd of buf-fa-loes. They would have been the 



6o 



Histojy of Missouri. 



death of him and the men with him had not his 
brave heart and quick wit come to their aid. 

Buf-fa-Ioes have a strange sense of what we may 
call care, for the cows and calves, and the old and 




WASH-ING-TON U-NI-VER-SI-TY, ST. LOU-IS. 



weak of their kind. They go from place to place in 
great herds ; they do not walk, but push right on, as 
if some one drove them at such speed. The cows 



History of Daniel Boone. 



6i 



and their young are put in front, while the strong 
male buf-fa-loes form a guard on each side and at 
the back, so that they can help the weak ones push 
on till they come to the point they have in view. 
They rush o'er plain and rock, swim streams, and 




IRV-ING SCHOOL, KAN-SAS CI-TY. 



wade creeks in one mass or crowd, in which there is 
no break nor turn. 

It was a drove like this that came on Dan-i-el 
and some friends one day ere they could get out of 
the way, for the herd was so large that it spread 



62 History of Missouri. 

out a mile wide. What could they do but stand 
and let the brutes crush them to earth ? Boone's 
friends cried out with fright, but Dan said, calm, 
firm, and bold, '' Don't be fools, boys, I'll get you 
out of this scrape all right." 

The herd was but thir-ty yards from them by 
this time. Cool, with the faith in his aim, Dan-i-el 
saw to the flint and prime of his gun. On the drove 
came, with a sound like an earth-quake, and the air 
thick with a cloud of dust they brought with them 
made by the tramp, tramp, and rush of feet. Must 
those young men go down with this blind rush, 
for what can turn this vast live mass from its way ? 

Boone lifts his gun ; a shot rings out; the smoke 
is lost in the dust that now is on them. A large 
bison in the lead falls right in front of them. The 
herd part, so that they will not tramp on their mate 
who is laid low, and so they rush on. Dan-i-el and 
his friends stand by the dead buf-fa-lo till the last 
one in the race is past. 

The men are safe, but they did not soon cease to 
think of this close call death had made on them. 

The fame of such pluck and nerve spread far 
and wide, so that when folks were in need of a bold 
man to lead them on some trip, they came to Boone. 

When the Boones had been in North Car-o-li-na 
some time, Dan fell in love with Miss Re-bec-ca 



History of Daniel Boone. 63 

Bry-an and the two soon set up house as man and 
wife. Nine boys and girls were born to them in 
time. One of these boys, Dan-i-el M. Boone, was 
the first A-mer-i-can to make his home in Mis-sou-ri. 

He wrote such good things of it to his fa-ther, 
that Mr. Boone had made up his mind to bring his 
wife to make his home there when the Span-ish 
Gov-ern-or at St. Louis sent for him and told him 
he would give him a large grant of land if he would 
come here and clear the way for white folks to 
build up towns in the wilds of Mis-sou-ri as he had 
done in Ken-tuck-y. 

Boone had spent years of his life in Ken-tuck-y. 
He went where no white man had been, to lay out 
lands for those who did not dare to claim what was 
their own till Boone had led the way. 

Once on a trip of this kind he and his men were 
caught by a tribe of fierce In-dians. They put all 
the men but Boone to death. They had heard of 
him as one who knew not what fear was, and they 
thought they would keep such a brave man and 
make him their friend. They knew how sure his 
aim was with a gun, and they said a man like that 
was of great use to the tribe. Boone did not 
like it, but he was too cute to let them see how he 
felt. 

The Shaw-nee chief Black-fish had just lost his 



64 



History of Missouri. 



son, and he told Boone that he should be his son in 

place of the one he 
had lost. 

Boone made 
him think he was 
quite proud of his 
new kin. The chief 
and his squaw made 
the whole tribe treat 
him like the son of 
a great war-rior, and 
Boone would have 
had a fine time 
could he have torn 
from his heart all 
thoughts of his dear 
wife and home. 
But he made up 
his mind to give his 
red pa and ma the 
slip at the first 
chance. It was two 
long years ere the 
chance came, for 
the In-dians kept a 
close watch on him. 
he heard that the Shaw-nees had 




ST. PE-TER AND PAUL S CHURCH, ST. LOU-IS 



o 



ne 



night 



History of Daniel Boone. 



65 



go- 



made a plan to join some of the tribes in a war on 
the whites in his old home. He must risk all and 
go from here and warn them of their per-il. 

The next day he told the old chief that he had 
heard of some fine game so far from the camp that 
it would take him all day to go there and back, but 
that he and his ''ma" might look for some choice 
bit for their meal that night. 

The chief told him 
Boone just so much 
time to get clear ere 
the In-dians would 
think he had run off. 
What speed he made 
when it was safe for 
him to race for his life 
and that of his folks ! 
And with what joy 
his wife and friends 
must have met him whom they thought long since 
dead ! 

It was years ere he saw some of the Reds of that 
tribe once more, for they did not make war on the 
whites just then ; they knew, when they found out 
that Boone had got clear, that he would put them 
on their guard, and they would get the worst of it. 

One day in the last year Boone spent in Ken- 




ST. MARK S ENG-LISH LU-THER-AN CHURCH, ST. 
LOU-IS. 



66 



History of Missouri. 



tuck-y, he was at work in his barn where tiers of to- 
bac-co hung in rows to dry. He stood high up on 
one of the poles to take down the crisp leaves of the 
weed that hung on the pole o'er his head, when a 
gruff voice at the door rang out with the words : 

^- "Ugh! Me know 

" "^^^_- you, Boone !" 

One glance, and 
Dan-i-el saw that the 
words came from the 
lips of one of two big 
In-dians of the Shaw- 
nee tribe, and that they 
knew him. 

They came and 
stood where he could 
ook right down at 
them, and said: 
'' Now, Boone, we got 
you. You no git way 
no more. We take 
you to Chil-li-cothe and 
keep you this time. 
You no cheat us more. Damn !" 

Boone did not show the least fear ; he gave them 
good words, and spoke as if he was more than glad 
to see them. ''Just wait a bit, I'll be down in no 




HE-BREW TEM-PLE OF THE GATES OF TRUTH. 



History of Daniel Boone. 67 

time," said he ; then, quick as a flash, threw an arm- 
ful of to-bac-co at them, and ere they knew what he 
was up to, he sprang down on them with more of 
the weed all in a crush, the dust of which got in 
their eyes and noses and mouths, and made them 
sneeze and swear at a great rate. 

When they got the to-bac-co out of their eyes, 
Boone was gone. The next year, 1792, Ken-tuck-y 
came in the Un-ion as a State, and Boone lost most 
of the land he had the claim to by the fraud of men 
who came to buy and sell to new folks. Boone did 
not know that there were rogues in the world who 
did not take his word for a deed, and as he had not 
been shrewd to keep sworn proofs that he had a 
right to his claim, these men took the land from him. 
Sore at heart, he left the State for which he had done 
so much, and went to Vir-gin-ia. 

From there he came to Mis-sou-ri in 1795, where 
he once more set to work, as in the old Ken-tuck-y 
days, to clear a path through wild woods for those of 
his own race. Tru-deau, the Span-ish gov-ern-or, 
kept his word and gave the brave pi-o-neer a large 
tract of land — 1000 ar-pents — in the Fem-me O-sage 
Dis-trict, and 10,000 ar-pents (acres) more, if he 
brought 100 fam-i-lies to build up the land here. 

When the U-nit-ed States bought Lou-i-si-a-na, 
Boone had no proof to show that all this land was 



68 



History of Missouri. 



his, and had not Con-gress made good his claim to 
the first i,ooo ar-pents, Boone would have once more 
lost home and land. 

When Dan-i-el Boone came to Mis-sou-ri his 
son Dan-i-el M. had built him a cab-in on the land 
Tru-deau gave him, and he at once went to work to 
pay some debts he had left in Ken-tuck-y. He did 




DAN-I-EL BOONE S LOG CAB-IN. 



not spend one cent for his own needs till this was 
done. With his gun he brought down the game, 
then he had to dress the skins so that they would 
sell well, then, when he had a good pile of cash, 
he went back to Ken-tuck-y to pay all those who 
said he was in their debt. They had naught to 
show that such was the case, but Boone paid up as 



History of Daniel Boone. 

lone as his cash heM out, for h( 
way 



69 
his 



^ „„ ..„ _...,___ ..e was so just in 

own way with men that he could not think men 
were not fair with him. When he had no more to 
he set out for home. 
When he oot back folks came from far and near 
to see him and hear what news he had to brincr from 



give 



% 



friends and kin they had 
left in Vir-gin-ia and 
Ken-tuck-y, for folks did 
not go back and forth 
much ere the .days of rail- 
roads and steam. 

"Now," said Boone 
to them, '' I can die in 
peace. I have paid my 
debts and no man can 
say ' Boone is a cheat !' " 

Boone on one of his 
trips in the wilds of Mis- 
sou-ri found the Salt 
Springs. Salt was so 
scarce and dear here that folks did not use as much 
as they would like to. What there was in use had 
to be brought from Ken-tuck-y in sacks on horse- 
back, or by keel-boat or barge from New Or-le-ans. 
You may know, then, what a rich find this Salt 
Spring was. 




SEC-OND BAP-TIST CHURCH, ST. LOU-IS. 



70 



Histo7'y of Missouri. 



In 1807 Boone with his two sons Dan-i-el and 
Na-than, and two men by the name of Bald-ridge 
and Man-ly, went to How-ard Coun-ty, where the 
springs were, and made salt, which they sent to the 
towns in troughs made of logs. These were then 
sent down stream like a string of floats or rafts. 




DAN-I-EL BOONE TRIES ON HIS COF-FIN. 



The first town so far from the posts of trade rose 
near these springs, and was known as Boone's Lick, 
and the road through the wilds got the name of 
Boone's-lick Road, the first clear track through the 
State. 



History of Daniel Boone. 



71 



Boone lost his wife in March, 18 13, and from 
that time Hfe lost its charm for him, and he gave his 
thoughts to the time when he too must die. Brave 
in life, he felt no fear of death. He had his cof-fin 
made, and put it by the side of his bed. At times he 
would lie down in it, to see that it fit his form well. 

He had at all times a free hand and a kind heart. 



li^^s^^^^^^^ 




HOUSE WHERE BOONE DTED. 



One day a strange man, who had no friends in the 
place and no means, took sick and died. Boone 
stood by him, and, as a crown to his good deeds, 
gave him his own cof-fin. 

Then he had a new one made, which he kept 
'neath his bed till friends laid his form in it, on the 



72 History of Missotiri. 

26th of Sep-tem-ber, 1820, when the brave, true soul 
had fled. He died in the room on the first floor to 
the right of the hall in the house you see in the 
sketch on page 71. It was the home of his son 
Na-than. It is the first house built of stone in 
Mis-sou-ri. 

They laid him by the side of his wife in a spot 
of his own choice, where their forms were left to rest 
for twen-ty-five years. 

In 1845 Mr. Gris-wold had the land on which 
the graves were. You may know he felt that our 
State ought to be proud to keep them in the best of 
care, and raise a mon-u-ment to the name of Boone. 

But it was not to be. Ken-tuck-y folks thought 
they had the first claim — I don't think so, do you ? 
When they gave him but poor thanks in life for what 
he had done for the land, and then took from him 
the last cent made by the toil of long years in the 
wilds of Mis-sou-ri ! Still it was not the same folks 
who were so mean in the old time who came in 
1845 to take up these bones and bear them to Ken- 
tuck-y. 

For this they did. The Hon. John J. Crit-ten- 
den, Wil-liam Boone, and Mr. Swag-gat came on a 
steam-boat, the Dan-i-el Boone, and had the re- 
mains of Boone and his wife borne to a new ground 
laid out for the dead at Frank-fort. Folks came 



History of Daniel Boo7ie. 



n 



from all parts of the land to see what was left of the 
brave old pi-o-neer laid to rest in the soil of their 
own State. 

Mr. Jo-seph B. Wells, of Mis-sou-ri, was there 
to tell of the good Boone had 
done for our State. It is said 
the graves on the hill near 
Teu-que were left just like 
some rude clefts in the ground ; 
that no one took pains to fill 
the holes or mark the spot 
where Boone had lain.^ Mr. 
Gris-wold found one of the 
small bones that fell from 
Boone's cof-fin, which broke 
when the black men who did 
the work went to take it up. 

I think that bone ought to 
be put in a grave on Teu-que 
Hill, and the bright boys and 
girls of the State should raise 
a fund to mark the spot with a mon-u-ment of Mis- 
sou-ri gran-ite. 

Colo-nel Wil-liam F. Switz-ler has in his home a 




FIRST PRES-BY-TE-RI-AN CHURCH, 
ST. LOU-IS. 



'^ I am in-debt-ed to " Pi-o-neer Fam-i-lies of Mis-sou-ri " for tlie in-ter- 
est-ing i-tem here given as well as for oth-er valu-a-ble mat-ter for this 
work.— E. R. S. McN. 



74 History of Alissoiiri. 

pa-per of the date of Oc-to-ber, 1820. In it is the 
no-tice of Dan-i-el Boone's death on Sep-tem-ber 26, 
1820, at the age of nine-ty years. If this was his 
right age, then Boone must have been born in 1730. 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE FIRST AMERICAN SETTLERS. 

What a rude, hard hfe those first A-mer-i-cans 
had of it out in the woods and wilds of the State ! 
When the first ground had been brok-en by the 
Boones, it was not long ere folks came from the 
Car-o-li-nas, Ken-tuck-y, Vir-gin-ia, Mary-land, and 
Penn-syl-va-ni-a. They brought with them no more 
than just such things as the chief needs of the place 
would call for, and some had one or more black 
folks who came with them from the old home. 

There were no locks on doors then, and those 
who had a roof o'er their heads made room for the 
wives and babes of the new men till these had some 
sort of a place of their own. 

How the axe and brawn went at the task ! To 
fell trees and clear a small farm space, and use those 




BOARD OF TRADE BUILD-ING, KAN-SAS CI-TY. 



76 History of Missouri. 

trees for logs with which to build house and barn 
for the stock, cows, horse, or ox-team. When the 
clothes they had brought with them gave out^ new 
were made of deer-skins for the men and boys. 
The wives and girls wore coarse cloth for their 
gowns ; the same had to serve for best shirts for the 
men, to be worn on great state times, such as a 
wed-ding feast. The bed-clothes were made ot nice 
warm bear-skins for cold months. The small folks 
slept in cribs made of hewn-out logs. 

They had lots of good fresh game for meat. 
The woods were full of hon-ey bees, so there were 
sweets for all. Things were kept cool and fit to use 
in a small place built by the side of a spring or 
creek near the home roof. 

Grass was so rich that most of the months of a 
year the stock did not have to be fed, but were left 
to graze, when not in use, in the free fields. Stock 
did not get lost or run wild, for the boys of the 
house would feed them salt, and in this way taught 
them to come at their call by the sound of the voice 
of those who fed them what they were as fond of as 
small folks are of a stick of sweets. 

One time a boy went to the woods to feed salt 
to the stock. He had no one to play with him and 
pass the time, so he thought he would have some 
fun with the cows. He stood right still a while, 



78 History of Missouri. 

then gave a cry like the bleat of a young calf. He 
thought the cows would '' moo" back and make him 
laugh. They did "moo" loud and long. With their 
heads down low, and horns stuck out, they made for 
him with a rush. 

He did not stop to have a bit of fun, but got up a 
tree with the speed of a hare, where he had to stay 
till the mad herd left in search of their night's meal. 
The same boy and his chums are said to have laid a 
plan to scare a flock of sheep. They had to drive 
them through a pair of bars of a rail fence. The 
boys would crouch down by the bars, and as the 
sheep sprang through, jump up and hiss, and scare 
the sheep till they ran wild. 

The trick did not work well once ; the boy sprang 
up all right, but ere he could make a sound the first 
lot of sheep got past and he fell on his face, while 
the whole flock made him a step to clear the bars. 
When his poor sore form got well, he gave up all 
sheep sport, and thought him of some means of play 
that did not hurt quite as much. 

I think it was this same lad who was out in his 
father's farm one day with some chums. A small 
black boy was with them, and he paid great heed to 
what the white boys had to say ; for they spoke of a 
man who had been hung some miles from the farm 
for a great wrong he had done. 



The First America7t Settlers. 79 

At last the lit-tle *'nig" said: ''Say, boys, you 
tink it hurt much when de rope was done put round 
he neck?" 

The boys could not tell, but they said they would 
give him a chance to find out if the " nig" had a 
mind to let them try the rope on him. 

The black boy thought it would be fine fun, 
so the boys took the rope from a plow ; one end was 
thrown o'er the limb of a tree, and one end made in 
a noose and put round the black boy's neck. 

'' Now, when you want us to let you down, just 
give a whis-tle," said they to hmi as they drew him 
up with all their might. 

Of course the boy could not make a sound ; and 
if the fa-ther of the white boy had not come to the 
scene in time to save his slave's life — and thrash his 
son too — the black boy could not have told how it 
felt to be hung, for he was so near dead when they 
took him down that they had a hard time to bring 
breath back to his limp form. 

He told the boys there was not much sport in 
the game for the one who had his head in the 
noose. 

Boys did not have books and games and lots of 
nice things to pass their time with as you small folks 
have in these days. They had to work in the fields 
and help shear sheep, milk cows, and chop wood. 



8o 



History of Missouri. 



The girls had to pick cot-ton, card, spin, weave, and 
aid their ma with the house-work. 

The ''cof-fee" drank by folks out there was made 
of burnt rye. Tea was not to be had but such as 
was made of herbs and bark. Cups were made of 
wood, like most of the ware in use. Gourds and 
horns took the place of glass. 




A PI-O-NEER FAM-I-LY. 



The strong drink in use was made of sweet grain, 
and in each house could be found a still. When a 
friend came to see them, some of this home-made 
stuff was set out and the good cheer of a guest drank 
with him in such words as : " Here, take a horn 
with me !" 



The First American Settlers. 8i 

Of small folks there were lots. It is said in 
some of these log homes there were from ten to 
twen-ty boys and girls. Six and eight were thought 
a small crowd for pa and ma to own. 

Boys had to wear frocks like girls till they were 
so big that they could hunt with the men, shoot 
their own game, dress the skin of the buck, and make 
their own pants. In this way ma and pa could see 
the kind of stuff the boy was made of. A lad with 
the right kind of pluck would not be seen in a girl's 
gown long. He was taught the use of the gun 
when quite young. Girls could hunt as well as 
boys then. 

The way but-ter was made was, to say the least of 
it, right cute when the men had a hand in the work. 
It is said they would put the milk in a gourd, sling 
it to the side of a mule or horse, jump on the beast's 
back, and whip him up and make him trot, and so 
churn the milk till the but-ter came. 

The wives and girls made use of a jug or gourd 
which they shook till the rich cream came to the top 
in sweet flakes of but-ter. To own a real churn was 
rare good luck. 



82 History of Missouri. 



CHAPTER VII. 

BISHOP MARVIN. 

The crude sketch of folks on their way to church 
in the year 1820 will make you smile, I think. But 
such was the style of dress in the wilds of our State 
as late as the date I have said. 

At that time some Meth-o-dist preach-ers made 
a tour of the State once in a great while. Then 
folks came from far and near and held a camp-meet- 
ino- in the woods. There was no sim of a church 
out there then, so folks were glad to leave all and 
join in the songs of praise that rang out loud and 
strong from the hearts of those who had but this 
rare chance to hear the word of God taught. 

The men took their guns, the wives held to then' 
breasts the babe of the house, the boys and girls 
took with them pet bears and dogs to make sport for 
them on the way. At times the camp was as much 
as ten, twen-ty, or thir-ty miles from their homes. 

Those who had real leath-er boots — for at this 
time some of the folks took pains to dress skins and 



Bishop Marvin. 83 

make leath-er for foot-wear — did not put them on, 
but held them in their hands till they got most to 
the end of the trip. Then a halt was made at some 
spring or creek to wash the feet, and the hose and 
boots were put on. 

The best clothes were worn too ; at such times 




ON THE WAY TO CHURCH IN I620. 



the buck-skin suit gave place to one of rough home- 
spun jeans. The wife wore a skirt that did not trail. 
Her waist was a short sack. Her hat was made of 
chintz, with wood slats to keep it in shape, and a 
frill to hang down o'er the neck. The boys and 
girls wore nice cool slips and no hats at all. 



84 History of Missouri. 

Some queer tales are told of some of the preach- 
ers who first made their homes in the State. A 
Rev. Mr. John Ham was of the Meth-o-dist faith. 
He went through the In-dian war in Mis-sou-ri with 
Na-than Boone. When he did not preach he spent 
his time in the wild woods with his gun to hunt the 
most fierce of game. He had a wife and two wee 
tots. While they were quite young his wife died. 
He had no one to care for the babes here, so he 
thought he would take them to his kin in Ken-tuck-y. 
He put one child in front of him and one at the 
back on the horse with which he rode all the way 
to that place. When he came to a deep stream, he 
swam it with one child first, and then went back for 
the one he had tied to some safe place in a tree, just 
as he had tied .the one he had to leave, to bring this 
one. Then he swam o'er once more with his horse 
and traps, and set on his way with good cheer and 
trust in his Lord to see him and his babes safe to 
the end. And the dear Lord who takes care of the 
small and weak, as well as the big and strong, did 
care for them till safe with kin and friends. Then 
Mr. Ham came back, and in time set up house 
once more with a wife to care for him and his. 

In 1823 his smoke-house and stores of meat 
were swept down the stream, near which he had his 
home, by a great flood. When he saw it move he 



Bishop JMarvin. 85 

ran for a deep trough in which soap was made, ran 
to the stream with it, got in, and set an oar to work 
to bring him in the wake of his smoke-house. It 
struck a big tree and gave Mr. Ham a chance to 
take out his fine lot of bear and deer meat, which he 
hung on the hmbs of the tree, where it was safe till 
the wa-ter went down. Then Mr. Ham went back 
to dry land in his soap-trough. 

Mr. Ham had a broth-er who was just as odd in 
his way. He got to be a Bap-tist preach-er, and 
would go from place to place to preach with gun on 
his arm in trim for a shot at all times. He was a 
big, strong man, and would preach as strong as 
his voice would let him, and pound the Good Book 
so hard that folks had no chance to snooze though 
he might preach for hours. 

One time he lost his ser-mon. When he rose to 
preach he said : '' When I left home I had a text, 
but I lost it. I have sought for it, my wife Han- 
nah has sought for it, but we can't find it. I know 
it's some-where in the hind end of Job, and it reads 
like this : ' Do a-ny of you know Ma-ry or the old 
dame they call Sal of Tar-kus, who said don't put 
new wine in old flasks or it'll bust and the good 
stuff all run out.' " Who could blame the young 
folks if they did laugh in " meet-ing" when such 
texts made the theme of a ser-mon. 



86 



History of Missoti7'i. 



Bis-hop Mar-vin was born in Mis-sou-ri in a log 
house in War-ren Coun-ty. There are some scenes 
in his young hfe that I must tell you of here. 

When Mr. Mar-vin was a babe his ma taught 
school in a wee bit of a house built in the yard of 
their farm, and her boys had a chance to learn more 




EX-PO-SI-TION RUILD-TNO, KAN-SAS CI-TY. 



than fell to the lot of most young folk of the time in 
our State. 

While quite a boy he had the gift of tongue, and 
could make a speech that set his boy friends wild 
with glee and pride in him. When he was six-teen 



Bishop Marvin, 87 

years of age he and a boy friend of his own years 
''ran" for a place as con-sta-ble. 

Each boy sought to gain the most votes, of 
course, so they spoke to their friends in the "hall" 
of the town. One said he would do all that man 
could do to gain their good-will in the ''of-fice." 
He would let no bad folks run free, and make all 
those who were in debt pay to the last cent ; in 
truth, he knew he was just the right ''man" for the 
place, and Mar-vin would not suit them half as well. 

The folks thought this was fair, and set up a 
great cheer as the youth sat down, his face all smiles, 
as much as to say, "Now beat me if you can, Mar- 
vin !" 

Then Mar-vin rose. He was tall and thin, his 
long hair fell o'er his brow, and his face had a 
quaint, sad look as if hope had fled down to his 
shoes. With a slow drawl he went o'er the speech 
his friend had made, and put in a word or two for 
his own cause ; then he flung back his hair, and, 
with a droll glance at the men in front of him, said : 
" My friends, I'll do all that my 'op-po-nent' said 
he would do ; aye, I'll do still more — I'll make folks 
pay you all they owe, and if they do not, I will run 
my hand in my own purse and pay the debt for 
them !" 

Such a shout of mirth as rent the air at this last 
part of the speech, for all knew that Mar-vin's purse 



88 History of Missouri. 

was as lank as his own thin form, with not a cent to 
his name ; but they were so proud of his keen wit 
and the quaint way he put his friend down, that 
they gave him their votes with one voice. He was 
but nine-teen when he had a call to preach. 

Folks did not care much for style out in Beth- 
le-hem, Mis-sou-ri, at that time, still the suit worn by 
young Mar-vin must have made some of them stare, 
though the brave soul gave it not a thought. His 
pants were of home-spun, home cut and made, cot- 
ton, that once had been blue, but the wear and tear 
of time, and a fond, clean moth-er's use of soap and 
wa-ter had done its full work on the bright tint of 
the dye. That it was bright could be seen by the 
patch of new stuff set on each knee. 

His ser-mon and the way he laid down his 
views on the text did not scare those who heard him, 
and one of the men said to a friend, when church 
was out, 

'' I think that vounor rnan would do well to m 
back and stick to his farm." 

'' Well, now, who knows, he may be a Bish-op 
yet," said John B. Al-len. 

Mar-vin had come a long way from home, to 
preach here, so he thought some one would ask him 
to dine. But folks went on their way and left the 
some-day-to-be-Bish-op to find his own meat. 



BisJiop Marvin. 



89 



He had done the Lord's work for them and 
he did not mean to starve. When one of the 
last men left the church, Mar-vin rode up to 




KAN-SAS CI-TY CLUB-HOUSE, 



him and said : '' Broth-er, do you live far from 
here ?" 

Mr. War-ren Walk-er was the *' broth-er;" he 
told him where his home was. 



90 History of Missouri. 

** Well," said young Mar-vin, '' I shall join you at 
your noon meal if I may." 

'' Why of course," said Mr. War-ren. '' I thought 
you were to go home with some of the rest." 

When next he came to Beth-le-hem to preach 
there was such a rush at him for the first chance to 
get the ''Bish-op" to dine, that he did not know 
who to say '' yes" to. But then who could have read 
'' Bish-op" on the knee-patch of a young man's pants ? 

Some queer tales are told of those men of the 
Meth-o-dist or Bap-tist faith, and most all the first 
folks to build up homes in the wilds of the State 
were Meth-o-dist or Bap-tist. 

Once the Mr. Ham I have told you of held 
" church " in a house where a strange man was 
guest. He was no doubt of a faith not like Mr. 
Ham's. He was from Vir-gin-ia, and wore a suit of 
fine broad cloth that, in the eyes of these good folks 
in the woods here, was quite a high style dress. 
Mr. Ham had sharp eyes and a keen tongue. 
When the folks knelt to pray this strange man just 
bent his head low ; but what must he have felt when 
the man of God with a clear voice said, ''And O 
Lord, bless thou too that man from Vir-gin-ny with 
the store clothes on, who is too proud to git down 
on his knees with us who am, as thou know-est. 
Lord, bent low with sin." 



Bishop Marvin. 91 

A young man who had just come to the wilds to 
preach took for his text, " My sheep will know my 
voice." '*Now, breth-ring," said he, ''this makes 
me think of a small goat by the name of Cato my 
dad had in North Car-li-ny ah, that did not come 
home one day ah, and the storm and wind and rain 
came up ah at a big rate ah, and we boys went out to 
call Ca-to the goat ah, and no Ca-to came to we boys 
ah. But dad, he just put out his head ah, and call 
one time ah, and poor Ca-to said baa, ah. So you 
see Cato knew dad's voice ah, and when he call him 
he come at once ! 

''Just so will it be on that great Last Day ah. 
The Mas-ter will call His sheep and a heap of them 
will come ah, some that did not have a call who will 
have on wolf skins ah, and try to pass for sheep 
ah, but the Shep-herd will know which of them 
wears the wool — and dad calls Ca-to, and Ca-to he 
says baa ah. 

" Now when some of my sheep get to heav-en 
'fore I get there, let them look out for me ah, for 
I see some of my sheep have gone to sleep ah, and 
you, Broth-er Lo-gan, just say to that man at the door 
not to talk so loud ah, or he will wake up old Sis-ter 
Cobb from her doze near by him. And my sheep 
will know my voice, and when I call ah they will 
come, but they will not come to the call of a strange 



^ _ History • of Missou ri. 

voice ah. Dad calls Ca-to ah, and Ca-to he says 
baa ah." 

Do vou think you would go to sleep if you heard 
some one preach in that style ? I am right sure I 
would not, and I think old " Sis-ter Cobb" had bad 
taste. 

It is said that when the folks in Dan-ville, Mont- 
TOm-erv Coun-tv, were at a o-reat strait as to how 
thev should put up a bell they had bought lor their 
tirst church, some said it should be hung on a 
frame on top, but the pas-tor. Dr. Bond, said that 
would not do, as the walls of the church were not 
built to bear the strain. Then some one told them 
to plant a tree with a fork-like crotch and hang the 
bell in that — he meant to build a frame in that shape 
in front of the church for the bell, but the man who 
said the bell should go on top of the house did not 
catch the sense of it. He sprang to his feet and in 
a rare said to the folks who thouo^ht well of that 
plan : 

"Why do you let a fool like that talk to you? 
Are we to plant a "forked tree" and wait till it 
oTows of a size to hold a bell that weio^hs five hun- 
dred pounds?" 

\Mien he saw the folks all smile at him, he 
knew who the "fool" was. 



Hianorous Stories. 93 



CHAPTER VIII. 

HUMOROUS STORIES. 

The first pi-an-o that gave out sweet notes to 
ears of Mis-sou-ri-ans was in the home of Dr. Young 
in St. Charles. Airs. Young knew how to play 
and sine so well that folks came from far and near 
to hear her, and see that "thing" by the name of 
pi-an-o. 

When Mis-sou-ri had been made a State the 
first leg-is-la-ture was held in St. Charles. The 
Hon-or-a-ble Ja-cob Groom was a mem-ber of it. 
He had heard of this pi-an-o, but did not know 
what sort of "thing" it might be like; he had heard, 
though, that it was a large piece of fur-ni-ture, and 
he had a great wish to see it. 

Mrs. Youno^ had brous^ht some nice thino^s with 
her when she came to make her home in St. Charles. 
One of these was a big, high post bed, with fine 
drapes on all sides. The folks had not had a chance 
to see such things till this time. 

One day Mr. Groom and some of his friends 



94 



History of Missouri. 



were bid to tea at Dr. Youngs house. A maid 
bade them leave coats and hats in the room where 




NEW COURT-HOUSE, KAN-SAS CI-TY, 



this great bed stood. Groom at once made up his 
mind that this ** thing" was the pi-an-o. 

He went up to it quite shy and fek of the cur- 
tains, with a wish in his heart that Mrs. Young 



Hu77iorous Stories. 95 

would make haste to join them and show her skill 
on this big pi-an-o. 

She soon came and said some words to her 
guests in a well-bred way. But Mr. Groom could 
not keep his eyes off that "thing" with the cur-tains, 
and burst out with: "Oh, Mrs. Young, I have 
heard so much of the fine way you play and sing, 
and I'm so fond of mu-sic, I do so much wish to see 
you play on that there thing." 

Such a laugh as the folks had on poor Mr. 
Groom ! And how cheap he felt when he was told 
that the "thing" was not \\-\^ pi-an-o, but a bed. 

A right cute joke is told of a small black boy by 
the name of Skilt. He was one of the slaves of Mr. 
Tate, of Cal-la-way Coun-ty, in the days long past. 

One day Skilt was at play in the yard near his 
ma's cab-in and saw two great big wild tur-keys 
swoop down by the corn-crib of the farm fowls and 
feast on the feed there as if they had a right to it. 

Skilt kept his eyes on them for a while, then a 
bright thought struck him ; he would catch one of 
those nice fat gob-blers for his ma. His mouth got 
moist at the prime roast he would have for the 
night's meal, so he got down on "all fours" and 
crept sly as a mouse 'neath the corn-crib, which 
stood on short posts to keep the floor dry. With a 
quick grab he got hold of two legs, but the legs were 



96 



Histo7'y of Alissouri. 



not mates, and ere Skilt knew what had come to 
him, he was high up in the air with a leg of a tur- 
key held fast in each hand. 

''Ma, oh ma! De birds gwine cart me off! 
Help, help!" 
his ma out 
Skilt.^ She 
on his way 
man she 
Book, for 
brought Mr. 




ST. GEORGE S CHURCH, ST. LOU-IS. 



This yell of fright brought 
to see what had hurt her 
may have thought he was 
to the sky like the good 
had heard of in the Good 
she gave a scream that 
Tate to the scene. 

Let go one of the 
birds quick!" said he in 

loud tones. 
^ ■ Skilt did so, 

and his weight 
brought tur-key 
No. 2 to the 
ground, bird 
and boy quite 
safe ; but Skilt 
had no wish to 
trap wild tur- 



keys by hand from that time on 

They say there was m the same coun-ty a man 
so tall that when he went in the woods for a day's 
hunt he hung the bag in which he kept his game in 



Httmorous Stories. 97 

the tops of the trees. When the thiie came for him 
to stack his oats and hay he would have to sit on 
the ground so that he could reach the top of the 
stack, for it gave him a pain in his spine to bend so 
low. 

I think they must have known how to tell big 
fibs out in that place, do not you think so too ? 

They had a man in the coun-ty who did such 
odd things that folks had to smile when they but 
heard his name ; so of cause he was the butt of all 
their jokes. He and some men were in the woods 
one day in search of game when they found two 
young bears. James Rip-per, the odd man, said he 
would like to have them for pets. His friends told 
him he could keep them if he would cart them home 
on his back. 

To be sure he would ; that was no great feat. 
A fool could do that ! said he, as he made the cubs 
fast with a rope, and slung them on his back and set 
off for home. 

He had not gone far when he felt a strange 
smart or sting on both sides of his head, and lo ! he 
found a cub at work on each ear, bent to chew off as 
much of it as they could in a short time. He flung 
the bears on the g^round in a bior rare and beat them 
to death. 

When his friends bade him tell them why he did 



q8 Hisioi-y of Missouri. 

not bring his pets home, he just gave a growl, but 
they knew, all the same, what made his ears so sore, 
for of course they had kept track of him and the 
cubs on the sly, to see what fun would come out of 
the trip home. 

Some well-known folks by the name of Darst 
came to Mis-sou-ri and built up the land so well 
that some parts of it is known by their name. They 
were men of thrift and did not fear to toil, and so 
they got to be rich and had fine farms and corn- 
cribs for grain and feed. These had no locks on 
them till Mr. Darst found that some sneak-thief 
came at night and stole his corn. He bore it a long 
time. At last he put a lock on his crib ; this gave 
cause for great talk in the place. To lock up one's 
house or stores was as much as to say that some of 
the folks were thieves. 

A man by the name of Smith made his tongue 
wag loud and long. He was one of those queer 
souls, such as we find in our midst all o'er the 
world. They do not care to work, and do not think 
it worth while to lay by a " nest-egg " for a time 
when they might be ill, or out of work, as folks of 
thrift and pride do who would not stoop to take 
alms, much less help out their means of life by theft. 
Smith was one of those who live from hand to 
mouth, and look with eyes of greed on those who, 



Humorous Stories. 99 

by their own toil and plans for the day that is to 
come, have more than the needs of the hour. He 
thought Darst had more than his share, so he went 
from place to place to scold and call him " mean" 
and *' close" when the corn-crib got a lock on it. 

Now Mr. Darst heard these things and had his 
own views, in which Smith had a part. The crib 
had its lock, but still the corn-store got less and less. 
On two sides of the crib there were cracks through 
which a man's hand could be thrust with ease. 

Mr. Darst sent for Smith one day and said to 
him: '* Smith, some rogue has been at my corn-crib. 
I want you to show me how to set a steel trap so I 
can catch the thief. Most of the theft was done by 
this crack here, so you just fix the trap on this side, 
and we'll catch our man by dawn of day." 

Smith set the trap as he was told, while his sides 
just shook with the mirth he did not dare show till 
Mr. Darst went in the house; then, with a loud 
laugh, he said: ''The old fool ! I'll just show him 
that his locks and his traps won't save his corn." 

As soon as Smith was gone Mr. Darst went 
back to his crib, and with a gleam of fun in his eyes 
made a change in the place of the trap. 

The next day as soon as the sun rose Mr. Darst 
took a walk out to his corn-crib, and saw a pale, 
sore, sick man by the name of Smith with his head 



lOO 



History of Missouri. 



bent low by the side of the crack where the trap had 

not been put by Smith. 

*'Why good day, my friend! Have you come 

to see who made love to my corn-crib last night ? 

Come up to the house, won't you, and break your 

fast with us." 

" I can't. I — I — I've 
got my hand caught in 

this trap you set so 

sly for me !" 

'' Ho, ho ! so you are 
the thief ! I thought so! 
Now, Smith, what shall I 
do with you ?" 

''Oh, Mr. Darst! 
Please, Mr. Darst, give 
me thir-ty-nine stripes on 
my bare back and set my 
hand free ; but don't tell 
on me for the Lord's sake, 
and I'll give you my word 
to steal no more." 

Mr. Darst gave him a 

hot coat of stripes and let him go. But folks found 

out that he was a thief, and he had to leave the 

State. So you see they knew how to get clear of 

bad men ere the time of jail or judge. 




NEW ODD-FEL-LOW S HALL, ST. LOU-IS. 



HiiJiioroiis Stories. lOi 

When more folks came and spread o'er the land, 
of course more men of a bad class came up in their 
midst. They spread bad money, would cheat, were 
horse-thieves, and did all they could to make life 
hard for the good folks. When honest men could bear 
it no more, they got up a band to make war on the 
rogues. 

It is known as the " Slick-er War." It got the 
name in this way : When the band was first made 
up they gave the rogues a word to warn them of the 
fate in store for them if they were caught at their 
''trade!" "If we catch you we will 'slick' you 
down till we tan your bad hide," or words like that. 

To " slick" meant to whip or pound. In all parts 
of the State slick-er bands grew up, and the man who 
made and spread bad coin, or was a horse-thief, 
would be caught, bound to a tree, and the "Slick-ers" 
would whip him and then see that he left the place. 



I02 History of Missouri. 



CHAPTER IX. 

OLD SUPERSTITIONS. 

One of the men whose fame for queer ways 
comes down to our time was Gen-er-al Bur-dine, of 
St. Charles Coun-ty. He was one of the best shots 
with his old flint gun in the whole land. Bear, deer, 
wolves, and more fierce game fell at the first fire. 
His life was spent in the woods. He knew all the 
trees well, and gave some of them names that his 
sons knew quite as well, so that when he came home 
from a fine day's hunt he said to them, " Go fetch 
the deer or bear I left at such and such a tree," to 
which he gave the name ; then they knew just where 
to go for the game which he had slain and hung 
on a limb till he could send for it. 

There were folks in all parts of our land who 
thought some ill thing by the name of witch could 
do them harm. Bur-dine was one of those folks. 
He had a mark put on all his stock with the red- 
hot shoe of a horse. This he thought would keep 
them free from ''witch" harm. Some of us still 



Old Supcrsiilions. 



103 



cling to such an odd faith, though we scorn to look 
the fact in the face when we hang the shoe of a 
horse o'er our doors and say we do it just for fun. 
We hope it will bring us ''luck" all the same. 

The Bur-dines had great flocks of geese. One 
day Mr. B. found some of them dead. "There," 




TER-RACE. SHAW's GAR-DEN, ST. LOU-IS. 



said he to his wife, ''a witch has got at our geese, 
and if we do not burn the dead ones and drive the 
witch from our place by the flames, we'll not have a 
goose left to us by next week." 

So they built a big fire in the yard and threw 




I04 



MR. BUR-DINE TRIES TO WEIGH HIS WIFE. 



Old Superstitions. 105 

the dead geese in, one by one. By chance one of 
them was not quite dead, and when the heat made 
it squeak and strive to fly from the flames. Bur-dine 
and his wife gave a yell and took to their heels, for 
they thought the " witch" had come out of the goose 
to give vent to its rage. 

The Gen-er-al's wife was quite large and fat, so 
one day he thought he would weigh her. He got a 
strong grape-vine and made a kind of swing of it 
for her to sit in, while he made the top firm to the 
"steel-yard" — an old-time scale or " bal-ance" you 
will see in the sketch on page 104. This was made 
fast to a hook in the roof of the porch. Then Bur- 
dine stood up on a cask, took hold of one end of the 
*' scales," and bade his wife take her seat in the 
swing. 

Plunk ! Down came Mrs. Bur-dine, firm and 
sound in her seat, but up in the air went Mr. Bur- 
dine with a squall and a kick that sent the bar-rel 
far from the reach of his toes, and there he hung till 
some one came to help him down. Mrs. Bur-dine's 
weight was too much for him. 

Mr. Bur-dine had a po-ny by the name of Ned. 
Folks said it was just as wise and fond of sport as 
Mr. Bur-dine, and would go with him o'er land and 
stream, rocks and hills, like a true friend. Mr. Bur- 
dine told some great tales of the fine things his po-ny 



io6 History of Missouri. 

could do ; one of which is so cute I shall have to 
tell it to you. Man and horse were out on the chase 
when they came to a stream so deep and swift that 
Mr. Bur-dine thought he would not try to wade it, 
but let Ned swim, and he would walk. So he cut 
down a tall, thin tree and made a bridge of it o'er the 
stream. It was so slim that he had to take great 
care not to let his feet slip off as step by step he 
made his way. When he had gone half the way, 
he had to stop and see where Ned was, for he could, 
not see him keep pace in the stream, as was his wont 
in a case like this. 

Ned swim? Oh, no ! Ned stood still a bit to see 
how Mr. Bur-dine did it, then he took up his march 
with the same care. So here was Ned right at his 
back with a gleam in his eyes that meant to say, 
'' Do you think I'll get a wet skin while you get o'er 
this stream with a dry coat ? I guess I can do with 
four feet what you can do with two." Then he gave 
Mr. Bur-dine a push with his nose, as if to say : 

" Move on, old friend, you and I will get to the 
end all right, \{ you will just step more briskly and 
give me a chance." 

Dan-i-el Boone had a dog whose fame comes 
down to us with that of the first grist-mill built in 
Mis-sou-ri. The mill was made of stones that did the 
work with wa-ter force. Right slow work it must 



Old Superstitions, 107 

have been, for it took a day and a night to grind ten 
bush-els of corn or wheat. As the stones ground 
the grain, the meal fell through a place made for it 
to a pan set on the ground. At first Mr. Bry-an, 
who built the mill, could not think where the meal 
went, for most of it would be gone when he came 
for it. But one day he heard a big noise out by the 
mill. He ran to see what the cause was, and there 
sat Dan-i-el Boone's dog Cuff with his nose up in 
the air, while a great wail of woe made the hills ring 
with his howls. The pan was clean, and when the 
mill did not grind as fast as Cuff would lick the 
meal, the dog gave vent to cries for more. 

The stones of this first "mill" are on the farm of 
Mr. Lo-gan in Mont-gom-e-ry Coun-ty. They were 
sold to Mr. Lo-gan's fa-ther, who brought them 
from Fem-me O-sage Creek, in St. Charles Coun-ty, 
where the mill stood in the old time. 

It is said that Cuff's taste for raw meal cost him 
dear. Mr. Bry-an put an old cof-fee-pot with a 
small top in place of the pan to catch the meal. 
Cuff got his head in that so firm that it would not 
come out, and he ran home with it stuck fast in that 
way. When Mr. Boone got it off, some of the dog's 
scalp came with it. Cuff did not care for meal from 
that time on. When folks gave it to him he would 
drop the curl out of his tail, blink his eyes as if there 



J 08 History of Missouri. 

were tears in them, and trot off bent with grief and 
shame. Do you think it was shame for his bad 
deed, or grief to think he was caught at it ? 



CHAPTER X. 

SPORTS OF THE AMERICAN SETTLERS. 

What fun it would be to see some one ride up 
to our door on an ox ! It is said that as late as the 
year 1825 a man by the name of Rice rode from 
place to place on the back of a fine, big ox with 
brass knobs on its horns. 

Mr. Rice was the man who had to go from house 
to house to get the cash from folks when the coun-ty 
tax was due. He was the '' As-sess-or," and when 
he came with a ''steed" so fierce, with horns that he 
could lift the roof off the house if the folk shut the 
.door in his face, why, you may guess that he met 
with fair luck on his rounds, and men paid their 
debts at the first call. 

And such rude sports as the young men used to 
have ! One of these was a game known as Gan-der 



sports of the American Settlers. 



109 



PuU-ing. A large gan-der (shall I say male goose ?) 
was hung on a frame of wood, or the limb of a tree, 
so strong it would not break. I think and hope the 
male goose must have been dead ere they strung it 
up. The head had to hang down just so that a man 
on the back of a horse could grab it by the neck and 
*' pull" the head off, as he rode by with all the speed 
he could get out of his horse, and not lose his seat 
in the race. 



At one of these games 
Bur-dine, a son of 



Sr^. 




Jim Dur-ame, a son 
the Gen-er-al I have told 
you of, thought he would 
come out first best for 
the prize. He rode 
old mule that had 
speed in him at all, 
Jim felt that he would 
have lots of time to pull 
the head off more 
his steed went by. 

When his turn came, he brought his old mule 
up with a slow pace and made a grab for the bird. 
Just then some sly youth gave his mule such a quick 
hard blow with a whip that the mule sprang up and 
ran off like a streak. The poor bird was so tough 
that Jim hung in the air with a firm clutch on the 



THE "sTF.Kd" MR. RICK RODE IN 1 825. 



than one nice big maie goose ere 



no History of Alissoiiri. 

gan-der's head till friends came to his aid and 
brought him down to earth safe and sound. 

Wed-dings were a source of great fun, and fine 
sport old and young had at such times ! Folks 
came from far and near to take part in them. They 
did not come just to help eat and drink, but to help 
the bride do the work. A feast was set for such a 
big lot of folks that a great table made of boards set 
on stumps and logs was spread in the shade of the 
woods. Whole young pigs, game of all kinds, and 
corn bread, with some snow-white wheat bread, so 
rare that it was cut as the bride's cake, made up the 
feast at such times. The girls all knew how to cook, 
and came from their homes days ere the one set for 
the feast, to help the bride brew and roast, and 
weave, spin, and sew. Some brides had to card, dye, 
and weave each shred of stuff that was to serve as 
the dress for that great day when she would take 
the name of wife. 

While the bride and her friends spread the 
board with good things the young men had their 
sports. To run, jump, lift, or do such feats of nerve 
and strength as would draw on them the bright eyes 
and good-will of the girls was their aim. 

A young girl had two young men seek her hand, 
one time. She thought well of them both. One 
was a brave but rude youth, who did not know 




KAN-SAS CT-TY " TIMES BUILD-ING. 



1 1 2 History of Missouri. 

aught of books or those nice ways to win the heart 
of a girl when strength and a big, fine form do not 
help him to her good-will. The one she got to like 
best had more taste for books than field sports, and 
his hope was to get to be fit to teach the Word of 
God in time to come. 

The young men made fun of him, and said he 
was a "moll" and ought to be put in skirts; but 
when he won the heart of the belle of the wilds, they 
were so mad they made up their minds to vex him 
as much as they could on the day the two were to 
be wed. 

They laid a plan to leap o'er the board on which 
the feast was spread, and the one who would as 
much as touch a dish or the side of the board when 
he made the leap should be put in a sheet, while 
four men held it and cast him up and down in it till 
he bid them stop, and thus be put to shame in the 
eyes of the girls. 

Now they knew the young stu-dent had no skill 
in their sports, and their hope was to make the bride 
feel bad, and get all the fun they could out of the 
man who had won her. 

As a rule the bride-groom led in the sport to 
show his strength and worth ; but this day they had 
it all their own way till the feast was spread, and 
the time came for the " big jump." 



sports of the American Settlers. 



113 



They all bent their steps to where bride and 
groom stood, and said to him : '' You must take the 
lead here ; the chief man of the day must show what 
he can do as well as the rest of us." 

Then they told the plan of the game. The 
bride got as pale as death, for she saw that their aim 
was to make her dear one seem small and mean in 
the eyes of all the guests. 
Not so the groom ; his 
head went up, and with 
a flash of scorn he said 
to the big, strong youth 
who had been his ri-val 
for the hand of his bride, 
and who spoke for the 
young men : 

** Brute strength is a 
grand gift when a true 
man's heart keeps house 
in it." Then he put his 
hand on the arm of his bride and said to her : 

''Do not fear, dear; I have no skill at such 
things — frogs were made to leap, men to walk ; but 
I do not lack the nerve, though strength should fail 
me, so here goes, and the Lord help the best man !" 

With that he bent his head a bit, ran like a deer, 
and with one bound went clear of the board. Such 




CHRIST CHURCH, ST. LOU-IS. 



1 1 4 History of Missouri. 

a shout as rent the air must have made the woods 
ring, and the bride feel that her choice was well 
made. 

There was no more fun for the big youth. His- 
spite had but brought out the real fine traits of the 
man he would have made the jest of his sport. 
When it was his turn to make the grand leap, it 
seems the nerve had left his limbs, for his feet struck 
the board, and it was his fate to get the '' bounce '* 
in the sheet and be the ''jest" of the day. 



CHAPTER XI. 

SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES. 

As the years sped on rough sports gave place to 
modes of life less crude. The House of God and 
the school house soon sprang up o'er the land. Men 
feel ill at ease if they do not have a church and a 
school in which their young folks may be taught to 
think and pray. 

No race of men can be kept on a low plane of 
life if they take pains to lift up their thoughts to 
what God has done for them on earth. When we 



Schools and Co/ leges. 1 1 5 

know what we owe Him we wish to thank Him. 
When we learn to love His great works we can not 
help but praise Him. 

The toil was rough and hard for those who were 
the first to clear the land ; but as soon as a group of 
folks would come to form homes in some new spot, 
they felt as if their lives were on most as low a scale 
as the brute till they had built, rude as it might be, 
a church and a school-house. 

When those first *' set-tiers" went to work to 
clear land and fell trees for logs with which to build 
a school-house, more than one of these men struck 
with a force born of the need they felt to be more 
wise than they were ; and from this need grew the 
wish to give their boys and girls a fair chance to 
learn, and put their gift of brains to the best use. 

Boys and girls who have a chance to read of 
what has been done in the world by those who have 
made the best use of their lives, can not help but crave 
to grow good and great, or aim to serve our race 
in some way. 

One of the first schools of note in Mis-sou-ri rose 
from the thrift and will of a wo-man, Mrs. Col-li-er. 

Mr. and Mrs. Col-li-er had their home in New 
Jer-sey. They had two wee boys when Mr. Col-li-er 
died and left wife and babes with but a small sum 
in cash on which to live. With this sum Mrs. Col- 



1 1 6 History of Missouri. 

li-er bought two cows, and sold the milk from these 
so well that she could take care of her boys and yet 
lay by from time to time a bit of cash, with which 
she bought more stock. With her good skill and 
thrift it was not loner ere she had a farm with one 
hun-dred good milch cows. 

In 1815 she sold this farm, and with $40,000 in 
cash she came with her sons to Mis-sou-ri and built 
a home in St. Charles. They did so well here that 
in the course of time Mrs. Col-li-er built a church 
on her own ground, and gave a house in which school 
was kept, and at last gave a fund of $5,000 to build 
a school for Prot-es-tant girls and boys. Out of this 
school grew St. Charles Col-lege. The son, Mr. 
George Col-li-er, was the right hand of his moth-er 
in all her good works, and, at her death in 1835, 
kept on with it till he died in 1852. He left $10,- 
000 as an en-dow-ment to the Col-lege. 

When Boone Coun-ty, by the high bid of $117,- 
500, got the right to have the State U-ni-ver-si-ty 
built in Col-um-bia, the coun-ty seat, a man who 
did not know how to read or write gave $3,000 — a 
large sum in those days (1839) — ^^ ^^e school fund. 

The man who Qrave with such a free hand must 
have felt as if his mind was held in chains by this 
sad lack, this great want in his life to know how to 
read, the grand key to knowl-edge. 



1 1 8 History of Missouri. 

The State has done grand work for the young in 
this hne. The schools are of the best in the world. 
In large and small towns you can see by their school 
build-ings, first of all, how broad and high of mind 
the Mis-sou-ri-an is, and how vast the hopes and 
wide the aims of the men who build and toil for 
those who must take up the helm of life where they 
leave off. 

Mis-sou-ri is yet so young a State that one can 
but look with pride on what has been done for her 
in so short a time. I will name some of the schools 
that dot the land. I have heard some folks say that 
"Learn-ing and cul-ture is not to be found in the 
West." Let these folks come and see us. We can 
teach them one or two things. There are lots of 
folks in the East and North who still think that 
all of the State of Mis-sou-ri but St. Lou-is and 
Kan-sas Ci-ty is a scene of dense wilds and bleak 
rocks, where now and then may be seen a stray 
white man with locks that know not of comb, and 
who, if some one sent him a cake of soap, would eat 
it for some kind of bread made by a new kind of 
yeast come in use since he left the " States." 

Why the babes of Mis-sou-ri know more than 
that! The first step they take out of ''moth-er s" 
arms is to the school-house, known by the sweet 
name of Kin-der-gar-ten. The wee tots soon learn 



Schools and Colleges. 119 

to love the name of Miss Su-sie Blow, who gave 
years of toil and thought to plant the Froe-bel sys- 
tem in the hearts of men and the soil of the State. 

But the wee boys and girls of Mis-sou-ri have 
brains that will let them learn deep, and see far at 
the same time, so that they may have a pride in their 
own State, and yet love to give fair due to what is 




DES PERES SCHOOL, ST. LOU-IS, WHERE FIRST KIN-DER-G AR-TEN WAS HELD. 

good and great in those they meet when they go out 
to see what the rest of the world has done. 

Our pub-lie schools will match the best in the 
world, and here is a list of some of the col-leg-es 
we are so proud of. 

Lin-den-wood Fe-male Col-lege, St. Charles ; 
Al-ex-an-dria Col-lege, Clark Coun-ty ; Bap-tist Col- 
lege, Lou-i-si-an-a, Pike Coun-ty ; Cen-tral Col-lege, 



I20 History of Missouri. 

Fay-ette, How-ard Coun-ty ; Cen-tral Wes-ly-an Col- 
lege, War-ren Coun-ty ; Chris-tian Broth-ers' Col-lege, 
St. Lou-is ; Chris-tian Fe-male Col-lege, Co-lum-bia ; 
Clay Sem-i-na-ry, Lib-er-ty ; Dru-ry Col-lege, Spring- 
field, Green Coun-ty; Har-din Fe-male Col-lege, 
Mex-i-co, An-drian Coun-ty ; Grand Riv-er Col- 
lege, Edin-burg ; Han-ni-bal Col-lege, Han-ni-bal ; 
Le Grange Col-lege, Le Grange, Lew-is Coun-ty ; 
St. Paul's Col-lege, Pal-my-ra ; Syn-od-i-cal Fe-male 
Col-lege, Ful-ton ; Rich-mond Col-lege, Rich-mond ; 
Thay-er Col-lege, Kid-der ; Ste-phen's Col-lege, Co- 
lum-bia. 

Mar-i-on Col-le-gi-ate In-sti-tute is a school on 
the O-zark Range in South-west Mis-sou-ri. Lin- 
coln In-sti-tute in Jef-fer-son Ci-ty is for the col-ored 
race. At Cape Gi-rar-deau is the South-east Mis- 
sou-ri Nor-mal School. War-rens-burg, John-son 
Coun-ty, has a State Nor-mal School. The North 
Mis-sou-ri State Nor-mal School is at Kirks-ville. 
The School of Mines and Met-al-ur-gy is at Rol-lo, 
in Phelp Coun-ty. The St. Lou-is U-ni-ver-si-ty 
is one of the first large schools built in the State. 
Ground was broke for it in 1829. Wil-liam Jew-el 
Col-lege is in Lib-er-ty, Clay Coun-ty. 

These are but a few of the great homes of learn- 
ine to be found in the State of Mis-sou-ri. 



Missouri Becomes a State. 121 



CHAPTER XII. 

MISSOURI BECOMES A STATE. 

On the loth of Au-gust, 1821, Mis-sou-ri took 
her place in the Un-ion as a State, and it was soon 
shown that there were men of nerve and brain to 
take the helm and guide the State on to fame. 

Al-ex-an-der McNair was made Gov-ern-or by 
the vote of the men of the State. At this time there 
were but 9,132 votes cast in the whole State. Wil- 
liam H. Ash-ley was made Lieu-ten-ant Gov-ern-or, 
John Scott was made Con-gress-man. 

The first As-sem-bly was held in the Mis-sou-ri 
Ho-tel on the cor-ner of Main and Mor-gan Streets, 
in St. Lou-is, ere it was quite sure that Mis-sou-ri 
was in truth a State. 

James Cauld-well, of St. Gen-e-vieve, was made 
Speak-er of the House ; John McAr-thur, Clerk ; 
Wil-liam H. Ash-ley, Pres-i-dent of the Sen-ate, 
and Si-las Bent, of St. Lou-is, Pres-i-dent pro tent. 
The first Su-preme Judg-es of the State of Mis- 
sou-ri were Ma-thi-as McGirk, of Mont-gom-e-ry 



1 2 2 History of Missouri. 

Coun-ty John D. Cook, of Cape Gi-rar-deau, and 
John R. Jones, of Pike Coun-ty. The first Sec-re- 
ta-ry of State, Josh-ua Bar-ton. State Treas-u-rer, 
Pet-er Did-ier. At-tor-ney-gen-er-al, Ed-ward Bates ; 
Aud-it-or, Wil-ham Crls-tie. The first U-nit-ed 
States Sen-a-tors from Mis-sou-ri were Da-vid Bar- 
ton and Thom-as H. Ben-ton. 

The seat of Gov-ern-ment was not to be in St. 
Lou-is, but at St. Charles, where the State ses-sions 
were held till 1826. From that time on Jef-fer-son 
Ci-ty has been the cap-i-tal of Mis-sou-ri. 

On De-cem-ber 9th, 1822, the town of St. Lou-is 
was made a ''ci-ty." Wil-liam Carr Lane was the 
first May-or. 

Then streets were laid out and the ground plan 
of a great ci-ty had its birth. The riv-er front was 
set with rocks to form a safe lev-ee. 

Thus in a few years a great change was wrought. 
In 181 7 the first steam-boat had a hard time to land 
in the mud banks of a small town, not much more 
than a post of trade. Li six or sev-en years from 
that time a hun-dred steam-boats left their car-go, 
and went hence with freight in trade with all the 
world. 

In 1825 Mis-sou-ri had a guest of great note. 
Mar-quis de La-fay-ette, whose name brings to the 
hearts of all true A-mer-i-cans a rush of blood warm 



^I4i)iiii 




'"""4illiiiliii"'Hiiliiij 



124 History of Missouri, 

with love and thanks for what he gave to the cause 
of A-mer-i-can In-de-pen-dence in the time of great 
need ; for the hfe he did not fear to risk, with the 
gift of his wealth, to aid the Re-vo-lu-tion-ist in 1777, 
when hope and cash had been at so low an ebb that 
e'en brave Wash-ing-ton's heart felt doubt as to 
what the end would be if help did not soon come. 
But La-fay-ette came. With him came Hope, 
Pluck, and Cash. He was but twen-ty-five years of 
age at that time when he came to help our brave 
troops nurse the weak, young Re-pub-lic in its grave 
strife for life. 

Now at the age of six-ty-eight this dear, brave 
man came to see what use the Re-pub-lic had made 
of the land he gave his aid to serve. 

You may be sure there was a grand time in our 
land when he and his son, George Wash-ing-ton 
La-fay-ette, set foot on A-mer-i-can soil. The Re- 
pub-lic was by this time a Un-ion of twen-ty-four 
States, and each State was glad and proud to have 
as its guest this dear friend of the Gov-ern-ment. 
When he came to St. Lou-is, old and young took 
part in the great time that was made to show him: 
love ; for though Mis-sou-ri was not A-mer-i-can 
soil in the old Re-vo-lu-tion-ary days, yet the men 
who had done most for the State were of the old 
stock that came from Vir-gin-i-a and Ken-tuck-y, or 



Missouri Becomes a State, 125 

some of the Col-o-ni-al States. Those of his own 
race and tongue In the State gave him sweet home- 
cheer and lent their aid to make the guest feel that 
all must, by force of true worth, keep warm in their 
hearts for all time the name of La-fay-ette. You 
must think of him when you walk in the park that 
bears his name. 

When he came to the ci-ty of St. Lou-is there 
met him Colo-nel Au-gus-te Chou-teau of that fine 
old French race who first built their home nests 
here. With him was the May-or, Wil-liam Car 
Lane, and Ste-phen Hemp-stead, who had Re-vo-lu- 
tion-ary blood in his veins in fact, for he bore arms 
for the "old" cause which was then so young. 

The Mis-sou-ri-ans love to do things well and in 
style. There is heart and soul as well as brains in 
what they do as a host for their guests. The good 
cheer they gave La-fay-ette was the first of a long 
page of good cheer that was to come in the course of 
time for guests one can keep no count of. 



126 History of Alissotiri. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

FLAMES AND DEATH. 

In 1 84 1 plans were made to light the ci-ty of St. 
Lou-is with gas. On the 4th of No-vem-ber, 1847, 
the work was done, and that night the good folks of 
the place felt that they could walk the streets by the 
light made by the skill of man, by the grace of God, 
who made his mind for such use. So the folks told 
the good old moon to pout and veil her face just 
when she had a mind to, and she might rise and set 
to suit her own hours, and not give them the least 
cause to fret at her moods. 

In 185 I the first rail-road in the State was built 
at St. Lou-is. It was a short branch of what came 
to be the St. Lou-is and Pa-ci-fic line 'twixt Mis- 
sou-ri and Wash-ing-ton Ci-ty. 

In our day the roads that lead to Mis-sou-ri are 
like the roads that lead to the Good Place : they 
come from all parts of the land to rest in the Un-ion 
Depot in St. Lou-is, and folks can take their choice 
as to what lines suit them best. 



12/ 



Flames and Wealth. 



In 1847, on the 20th of De-cem-ber, the first 
tel-e-graph Hne with Mis-sou-ri was put in use, with 
its of-fice in St. Lou-is 

One of the great needs to have men who could 
give their whole time to save life and prop-er-ty 




ST. LOU-IS JOCK-EY CLUB-HOUSE, FAIR GROUNDS. 

gave birth to the paid Fire De-part-ment in 1857. 
Oh, but Mis-sou-ri is proud of her ** Fire Lad-dies"! 
They are men of brains as well as pluck. 

The first big fire in St. Lou-is was on the 19th 



128 History of Missouri. 

of May, 1849. On the night of that date a steam- 
boat, the '' White Cloud," which lay at the foot ot 
Vine Street burst out in flames. The wharf was 
street deep, one mass of freight which had been 
put off, or was to be put on boats ; this caught fire 
and set in flames whole blocks of ware- and store- 
hous-es on the face of the stream. The "White 
Cloud" soon got to be a float of flames, and on her 
swift trip down the riv-er did so much harm that 
ere a stop could be put to the fell work, twen-ty-three 
steam-boats, some barges, floats, and ca-nal boats 
were in a whirl of fire, and, as one by one they 
burnt loose from their place at the wharf and went 
on a mad race down the stream, it made a scene for 
those who saw it that they could not get out of their 
minds to the end of life. 'Tis said the flames were 
a mile in length, and for hours men were in dread as 
to where they would halt, or would there be an end 
to their fierce greed as long as there was stuff left for 
them to feast on. 

The wreck was great. The loss a sad one for 
that time. But the men of the great South-west have 
no end of pluck. They had strength of will and 
the nerve to face the ills of life as men should when 
dark days come, so the harm was soon made good. 

In 1832 the worst form of chol-e-ra brought 
death to ma-ny homes in and near St. Lou-is. The 



130 History of Missouri. 

scourge swept o'er the ci-ty once more In 1836 ; and 
in 1849 there was scarce a house that the dread 
breath of this dark, quick disease did not touch with 
the gloom of death. More than once the streams 
rose so hi^h that land and homes were laid waste 
for miles and miles o'er the land ; but no flood, flame, 
or scourge can quell the brave soul of the Mis- 
sou-ri-an, nor drown, burn, or kill the pluck of the 
men of the ereat South-west ! 



CHAPTER XIV. 

JOE SMITH'S PARADISE. 

Do you know what a Mor-mon is? One kind 
of " mor-mon" is a bird. It is a queer bird with 
web feet and short wings so that it can not fly a long 
way at one time. It has such an odd bill or '' beak," 
that folks who have seen it say it makes the bird 
look as if it wore a mask to hide its real face. The 
*' Mor-mons" I mean are an odd sort of men. They 
may not have web feet, but they do wear masks 
'neath which they would try to hide a face of fraud. 



Joe SmitJis Pa7'adise. 131 

There came to Mis-sou-ri in 183 1 a man by the 
name of "Joe" Smith. He was but twen-ty-six 
years old at the time, yet he was priest and chief of 
a lot of folks who thought they could change the 
minds of all those who have faith in the word of 
God as Christ our Lord taught it, and as the Word 
is taught to us by those who spend their lives in 
search of the Truth. Joe Smith was ig-no-rant ! I 
can not find a small word in which to tell you all 
that the word ig-no-rant means. 

Rude of speech and not book-taught, he was yet 
keen and taught in the arts of how to judge of men, 
for he found not a few that he could bring to his 
strange views, and make them have faith in his 
words when he told them he had found the one true 
re-li-gion. 

First he said that God had come to him and 
told him that his sins were for-giv-en. That he, Joe 
Smith, should go hence and teach the true Gos-pel, 
and that all which had been taught so far was wrong 
and false. 

Then he next told that an an-gel had come to 
him one night while he slept, and told him where 
to find plates of gold on which were marks that 
would make known the his-to-ry of the first race of 
men who dwelt on earth. 

He said he went to the hill, on the road from 



132 



History of Alissottri, 



Man-ches-ter to Pal-my-ra, in the State of New 
York, where the an-gel had told him he would find 
them. But the ''Old Boy" and his "Imps" were 
there to wage war with him for the plates. 

This was hard on Joe, to say the least. But he 
thought he had the best right to the plates ; so he 

cast off his coat, and then 
by his lone self '' went for" 
the horde of those who 
came to the ''scratch" with 
horns and hoofs, and made 
them lick the dust. 

The " ref-er-ee," Joe's 
"angel," then gave the fight 
to him, with the gold plates. 
These were six inch-es 
thick and eight long, with 
marks on them as you see 
on this page. 

Joe then went to work 
of the " Book of Mor-mon," for 
such, said he, were the plates. When the book was 
done and in print Joe went in search of a place in 
which to build a ci-ty for the " Saints" he had found. 
He said all who had faith in him were " saints," and, 
strange as it may seem, he found quite a lot of folks 
who thought they would make tip-top saints. 




THE BOOK OF MOR-MON. 



to make Eng-lish 



Joe SmitJis Paradise. 133 

Joe came to Mis-sou-ri. Joe was not a fool. 
He knew, when he got to the State, if there was a 
fair spot on earth fit for a Par-a-dise, Mis-sou-ri was 
that spot. 

He went to In-de-pen-dence, Jack-son Coun-ty, 
and the Lord told him. Here is Zi-on, here build the 
New Je-ru-sa-lem. He at once sped hence to the 
camp where his saints had made halt at Kirk-land, 
O-hi-o, and brought them to Mis-sou-ri. 

They laid claim to some thou-sand acres of land, 
and the small-fry '' saints" built homes and did the 
work, while the head saints saw that the stores and 
good things of life were in good hands, for they had 
care of them. No one had a right to call things 
their own ; what fruit and grain there was from 
year to year was put in one great place, known 
as the "Lord's store-house." Joe and the head 
"saints" had a good time and fed on the fat of the 
land. Still they were not as bad a lot yet as they 
came to be. 

Joe was now their High Priest and Proph-et. 
He made the dupes think that God put in his mind 
the things he said should come to pass. His mouth- 
piece was a pa-per known as the E-ven-ing Star. 
In this he fore-told great things for the saints. But 
such a " wrath to come" as that which he told would 
soon root out the " Gen-tile" from the face of the 



34 



History of Missouri. 



earth, and leave all the wealth and fine things for 
the saints, did not suit these Gen-tiles. They bore 
the hue and cry for a long time ; then one night 
they flung the press and type in-to the stream. 
They gave the High Priest a warm coat of tar and 
feath-ers, and put some of the saints to shame in a 
place where all the town could see the show. 

Then the saints 
took up arms to 
smite the foe, and 
some saints and Gen- 
tiles were slain. It 
was the luck of the 
Mor-mons to win 
this fight. Then Joe 
the Proph-et got in 
his fine work. 

" I told you so !" 

said he to his saints. 

"We have won! We 

have smote the foe 

*' hip and thigh"! We shall now clean out this 

hot-bed of sin (the town of In-de-pen-dence), for the 

Lord hath said it." 

By this time the '' Gen-tiles" from all the towns 
near were on the war-path, and met the saints in 
such a way that they were glad to lay down their 




JOE SMITH S HOME. 



Joe SmitJis Paradise. 135 

arms and give their word that they would leave the 
place and come back to their '' New Zion" no more. 
They then spread o'er new parts of Mis-sou-ri. 
The Proph-et Joe and the chief saints made their 
homes in Cald-well Coun-ty. The Tem-ple of the 
Proph-et was not such a grand place, as you will see 
by the sketch, which I take from *' Switz-ler's His- 
to-ry of Mis-sou-ri," in which we are told that the 
house still stood (in 1879) ^^ ^^e farm of Mr. Peter 
L. Boul-ton. Some of the saints went all o'er the 
world in search of dupes, and found them. In a 
few years there were more saints than Gen-tiles in 
five or six coun-ties in Mis-sou-ri. The saints 
thought they had a right to take from the Gen-tiles 
all that they had, for Proph-et Joe said the " Lord's 
peo-ple" had the right to the earth. A ''saint" 
could not, of course, be a thief ! 

They laid plans to build a great tem-ple in the 
midst of a vast, fine ci-ty to be known to all time as 
Far West. 

It got to be hard times for the Gen-tiles, for the 
'* saints" held all the of-fi-ces and made the laws, and 
a Gen-tile had no chance to o^et his ricjhts where these 
Mor-mons were. 

It is not strange, then, that they felt a rage grow 
up in their hearts, till it broke out in acts that were 
not quite fair. The end of it was a war in which the 



136 



History of JMissoitri. 



State troops had a hand. Blood was shed on both 
sides, and much harm was done. 

It was niade known to the Mor-mons that they 
could not live in peace here. If they would leave 
the State they should be paid for their farms and 
homes. The head saints, in the face of State 
troops, and the hate of the '' Gen-tiles," thought it 




SCENE IN COUN-TY PEM-I-SCOT. 



would be best for them to say "yes" to such terms. 
Ere this plan could be put in force the head saints 
changed their minds and would not go. In 1838 the 
Mis-sou-ri mil-i-tia was once more up in arms to make 
an end to the strife in the " Mor-mon Coun-ties." 
This time there was war ! The First Bri-gade, with 
Gen-er-al Don-i-phan and Gen. John B. Clark, met 
the Mor-mon force one thou-sand strong, led by G. 



Joe SmitJis Paradise. 137 

W. Hin-kle. Joe Smith, the Proph-et, when he saw 
how frail a chance the " saints" had to come out 
first best, at last came to terms. 

He and his head men at arms were to stay and 
be tried ; the rest of the Mor-mons, old and young, 
should leave the State. This was the end of the 
Mor-mon pest in Mis-sou-ri. 

Joe Smith, it is thought, gave the guard a fine 
bribe to let him leave on the sly. He led his saints 
to Il-li-nois to a sweet spot on the banks of the Mis- 
sis-sip-pi, to which they gave the name of Nau-voo, 
where they built a fine tem-ple, and were left in 
peace till 1843. 

By this time Joe had thought out a plan to suit 
the taste of an A-mer-i-can Sol-o-mon. So he at 
once made known to the saints that the Lord had 
told him it was right to have more than one wife. 
The saints then took all the wives they had room for 
in their hearts and homes. 

When this mode of life got to be known in the 
Gen-tile world, the peace at Nau-voo came to an end. 

To have more than one wife at one time is to 
break the law of our land. Joe and the heads of the 
tribe of saints were thrust in a cell on charo^e of 
*'trea-son a-gamst the State." 

The news was then spread that Joe had friends 
in the men who held him in charge. This gave rise 



138 History of Jlli'ssouri. 

to the fear that Joe would get clear in some way, 
just as he got out of jail in Mis-sou-ri. The men in 
Il-li-nois were bound this should not come to pass. 
A lot of them went to the jail in Car-thage where 
Smith and some of the chief saints were kept, burst 
in the door, and made a rush for Joe's cell. 

Joe's friends 
in the jail must 
have left him 
with arms ; for he 
had good ones, 
and made the 
best use he knew 
how of them. 
Three men fell 
dead from his 
shots and more 
were bad-ly hurt 
I ere he was caught 
^^ by the mob. 

But his time 

GUARD HOUSE, LA-FAY-ETTE PARK, ST. LOU-IS. 




had 



come. 



A 



ball at last hit him and he fell dead. Thus came to 
an end the life of the first Mor-mon Proph-et, Jo- 
seph Smith, a bad man, with good taste, though, or 
he would not have thought Mis-sou-ri the first, best 
place for a " Par-a-dise" for '' saints." 



Joe SmitJis Paradise. 139 

Poor Joe ! Had he but spent his wit and brains 
to build up a hfe of good works, what fame might 
he not have made for which men would bless him in 
the time to come ! 

Good deeds are not lost. We may grow sad at 
the thouo^ht when we have done a brave or o^ood 
thing to see no good come of it at once. But good 
is bound to come from good, though years may pass 
ere it springs up, like some sweet plant, to cheer 
some life, or lead to great good for our race, our 
land, and homes. 



CHAPTER XV. 

THE CIVIL WAR. 

The State grew strong in wealth and men as the 
years sped by, till the year i860 drew to a close. 
Mis-sou-ri was a slave State, as you will bear in 
mind. The first A-mer-i-cans who came to build up 
the State had come from slave States and brought 
with them their black slaves. It is but just and fair 
to state that it would have been strange had not 
these men felt their hearts go out in good-will to 



140 History of Missouri. 

those who held the views that a State had the right 
to go out of the Un-ion if the men of such States felt 
that their rights were at stake. 

But in the twen-ty years ere the war there had 
come to Mis-sou-ri a lot of men from Ger-ma-ny. 
They came to the '* Land of the free and the home 
of the brave," and most of them made their homes 
in St. Lou-is. State rights, and the "rights" of 
the black man, did not give them great care. They 
had no slaves and had been brought up with views 
that must needs clash with the views of those who 
were born on the soil and had been taught views 
that had come down to them with their re-vo-lu-tion- 
a-ry blood. 

As ci-ti-zens the men got on in peace, but when 
the scenes drew near the dread time of war the Ger- 
mans took up arms for the Un-ion. 

In the mean-time the chief men in of-fice in the 
State had met in Jef-fer-son Ci-ty on the 2d of 
Jan-u-a-ry, 1861, and made known that the State 
would not take up arms to aid the Un-i-ted States 
Gov-ern-ment make war on the slave States that 
had gone out of the Un-ion. 

The Gov-ern-or just put in the chair of State that 
year was Clai-borne Jack-son. He and the Lieu-ten- 
ant Gov-ern-or, Thom-as C. Rey-nolds, were States 
rights men, or '' Se-cesh," at least in so far as the 



The Civil War. 141 

States that had se-ced-ed had the right to do so. 
There were in hope that the State would be left in 
Peace — not take sides in the strife. At least this 
was the aim of those who held warm hearts for the 
men of the se-ced-ed States. They did not wish to 
be made to take up arms for the Un-ion to strike at 
these States, nor were they at first of a mind to make 
war on the Un-ion. But peace was not to be the 
share of Mis-sou-ri. 

The State, or most of the folks in the State, might 
be in '' sym-pa-thy" with se-ces-sion. Or the head 
men of State and the folks might hope for peace, 
but in St. Lou-is there were men who were Un-ion, 
or war to the death ! 

The chief of these men was Frank Blair. Each 
throb of his pulse was Un-ion. His whole heart 
was set on the cause of which Lin-coln was the 
head. A cause that said, with red-hot shot, that the 
States were but the arms of a Re-pub-lic ; and these 
arms had no right to act if the head of the Re-pub- 
lic did not move them to suit its own views. 

Frank Blair's acts brought to form the first Un-ion 
troops in the State ere Lin-coln's call to arms was 
made. 

The head men on the Un-ion war-side with 
Blair were O. D. Fil-ley, Giles F. Fil-ley, James 
O. Broad-head, F. A. Dick, Bar-ton A-ble, Charles 



142 History of Alissouri. 

M. El-leard, Wil-liam McKee (of Globe Dem-o-crat 
fame), B. Gratz Brown, S. T. Glo-ver, Pe-ter L. 
Foy, Ben-ja-min Far-rer, S. Sim-mons, and men of 
that class and worth. 

O. D. Fil-ley and John How, with J.J. Wit-zig, 
Sam-u-el Glo-ver, and James O. Broad-head were 
made what was known as the '' Com-mit-tee of 
Safe-ty," to keep guard of the life and homes of the 
Un-ion folks in the ci-ty. 

To arm men one must have funds. The cash of 
the State was in the hands of the State Treas-ur-er 
who was, like most of the of-fi-cers and folks in the 
State, not of a mind to let men use the funds to buy 
arms to kill them with. The arms of the State were 
at the Ar-se-nal, and this was in charge of men who 
held views like the Gov-ern-or of the State — at least, 
they would not give up the arms to men who had 
not the right to use them till the U-nit-ed States 
Gov-ern-ment gave them that right. 

Now I wish to ask if the Gov-ern-or and the 
'' bad se-cesh" were so wild (as some of the his-to-ries 
of that time would lead us to think) to have the 
gore of the Yan-kees and the Ger-mans ('' Dutch "), 
why did not these bad se-cesh make use of their 
chance to wipe out their *' foes ?" 

The arms and Gov-ern-ment stores of war were 
in the hands of those who were friends of the " se- 



The Civil War. 



14: 



% 



cesh," and yet they made no move that, in truth, can 
be said meant harm to the peace of the town till 
that peace was rent by the acts of the Un-ion-ists. 
But I have no right, in a book of this kind, to 
give tone to the facts as I may view them. The 
plain truth is, in 
brief^ thus : _-^ "^fe. 

In Feb-ru-ary, 
1 86 1, there came 
to St. Lou-is Cap- 
tain Na-than-iel 
Ly-on, with a com- 
pa-ny of U-ni-ted 
States re-gu-lar 
troops from Fort 
R i-1 e y. They 
were sent by the 
U-ni-ted States 
Gov-ern-ment to 
aid the troops at 
the Ar-se-nal. 

Gen-er-al Har- 
ney was chief-in- 
com-mand of the De-part-ment of the West at this 
time, and he was well thought of by the folks in 
Mis-sou-ri. It was his aim to keep scenes of blood 
and strife out of the State as long as he could do so. 




SCENE IN LA-FAY-ETTE COUN-TY. 



144 History of Missouri. 

This did not suit Frank Blair and the warm Un-ion- 
ists. They were in great fear that if some move 
was not made to tie the hands of the " se-cesh" at 
once, the State would be lost to the Un-ion. It 
was their wish that Gen-er-al Har-ney should take 
steps to put down — lock up or some such step — all 
those who were in '' sym-pa-thy" with the cause of 
the South. 

This was, to the mind of Gen-er-al Har-ney, not 
the right thing to do just at that time. There were 
at that time more ''se-cesh" in St. Lou-is and in 
the State than there were Un-ion-ists, and had Gen- 
er-al Har-ney been as rash as the Un-ion-ists, there 
would have been a great deal of fine blood let in vain 
for the Fed-er-al cause ; for, as I have said, the stores 
and arms were in the hands of those who felt deep 
sym-pa-thy with the South, though they had no wish 
to strike a blow to harm the Gov-ern-ment. 

Cap-tain Ly-on was as fierce and brave, as well as 
rash, as a ''Li-on" in truth. For him there could be 
no two sides to the ''Cause." The " Un-ion" first, 
last, and all the time. Those who did not feel as he 
did were Trai-tors, for whom there must be no show 
of fair play. 

This was the man for Frank Blair, who, like 
Ly-on, was all for the Un-ion. Wealth, life, and 
brain — all was not too much to place in the Un-ion 



Camp Jackson. 145 

cause. The first thing, then, to be done was to get rid 
of Gen-er-al Har-ney, and make Ly-on chief of the 
U-nit-ed States troops in such a way that he was 
free to act as he saw fit and thought was right. 

Frank Blair's brother was in Mr. Lin-coln's cab- 
i-net. By his aid the Blair men got their way, 
and Gen-er-al Plar-ney had a ''call" to come to 
Wash-ing-ton. 

In the mean-time more Fed-er-al troops were 
sent to the State, and the first four reg-i-ments of Mis- 
sou-ri Un-ion Vol-un-teers were made up. 

Frank Blair was made Colo-nel of the First ; 
Hen-ry Boern-stein of the Sec-ond ; Franz Si-gel of 
the Third ; B. Gratz Brown of the Fourth. So 
then with Frank Blair and Ad-ju-tant-Gen-er-al 
Ches-ter Hard-ing and these hosts of brave men, 
Cap-tain Ly-on laid plans to ''save Mis-sou-ri." 



CHAPTER XVI. 

CAMP JACKSON. 

The State mil-i-tia, in com-mand of Brig-a-dier- 
Gen-er-al M. L. Frost, went in-to camp at Lin-dell 
Grove, far out on Olive Street, in St. Lou-is, on the 



146 History of Missouri. 

3rd of May, 1 86 1. It was a rule of the State mil-i- 
tia to camp out in this way for six days once year. 

This spring they laid out their camp ground in 
streets, just as they had done each year, but the 
names they gave these streets and the name of 
the Camp Jack-son, for the Gov-ern-or of the State, 
did not leave great doubt as to which side of the 
war theme their hearts were. 

Cap-tain Ly-on knew the Ber-thold Man-sion 
was the '' nest of the se-cesh," for when he came to 
St. Lou-Is the '' Reb-el Flag" was flung to the breeze 
from the top of the house. But the curb was on 
him then, and he did not dare to tear the flag or 
house down. 

Now he was free to act; Har-ney, the ''curb," 
was not on him. He put his spies to watch the 
Ber-thold Man-sion, and mark the men who met 
there, but his own keen eyes he kept on Camp 
Jack-son, the ''trai-tor nest." 

The Gov-ern-ment had not yet sent some one to 
take Gen-er-al Har-ney's place as chief of the 
U-nit-ed State troops, nor as yet had Ly-on the right 
to make war in the State. But he thought it was 
time to put down all signs of what in his eyes was 
rank re-bel-lion to the U-nit-ed States Gov-ern-ment. 

He said as much to the Safe-ty Com-mit-tee, but 
they bade him bide the timetill he had the right to 



Camp Jackson. 147 

act, or till the State Mi-li-tia by their own acts 
gave him some cause to break up their camp. 

But Ly-on could not rest. When the Pres-i~ 
dent sent out a call for 75,000 men to take up arms, 
the Gov-ern-or, Claib Jack-son, had said that his 
State should not give one man to help bring on a 
war of States ; hence Ly-on thought if the Gov-ern- 
ment could not see that it was high time to look out 
for its cause in Mis-sou-ri, he would, and take all 
risks on his own head. 

On Wed-nes-day, May 8th, Ly-on bade Mr. 
Wit-zig join him at the Ar-se-nal at two o'clock the 
next day, Thurs-day. Mr. Wit-zig was on hand, but 
he could not find Cap-tain Ly-on. A la-dy with a 
veil o'er her face sat by Ly-on's desk. She did not 
speak, and when Mr. W. sat down to wait for the 
Cap-tain, the la-dy rose, threw back her veil, and lo ! 
who should it be but Ly-on in the dress of a 
wo-man. There was a quaint smile on his face as 
he said : 

" You did not guess 'twas a man who sat here, 
did you ?" 

" Not a bit of it !" 

'' Well, I am in for a ride through Camp Jack- 
son. Frank-lin Dick's black coach-man is to drive 
me there in Mr. Dick's car-riage. I shall spy out 
the land and then — act. 



148 History of Missouri. 

In the dress of a wo-man Ly-on made the tour 
of the camp. He then went back to the ar-se-nal 
sent for the Safe-ty Com-mit-tee, and told them that 
he had made up his mind to take Camp Jack-son, 
and at once ! Gen-er-al Har-ney would be back by 
Sun-day, and then he, Ly-on, might not be free to 
crush out such a bold se-ces-sion nest till the trai- 
tors had a chance to arm and stand fio'ht. 

Gen-er-al Frost heard that Cap-tain Ly-on meant 
to break up the camp, and at once wrote to ask the 
Cap-tain by what right he meant to treat them as if 
they were the foes of the Gov-ern-ment, since they 
had but one hope and aim, and that was to keep far 
from our '' Bor-ders the mis-for-tunes which so un- 
hap-pi-ly af-flict our com-mon country." (I quote 
Gen-er-al Frost's own words.) Fri-day the loth of 
May, 1 86 1, Cap-tain Ly-on at the head of the First, 
Sec-ond, Third, and Fourth Mis-sou-ri Vol-un-teers, 
and the Third and Fourth Home Guards with their 
chiefs, Colo-nel Blair with a bat-tal-ion of reg-u-lars 
under Cap-tain Swee-ny took up their march through 
Leclede Avenue. Colo-nel Boern-stein and his men 
went up Pine Street, Colo-nel Schutt-ner and his 
brave boys up Mar-ket Street, Colo-nel Si-gel and 
his proud men up Ol-ive Street, Cap-tain Brown and 
a squad of sol-diers up Mor-gan Street, and Colo- 
nel McNeil swept through Clark Av-e-nue. 



Camp Jackson. 149 

There were six piec-es of ar-til-ler-y when they 
got to the camp and were spread on all sides of it. 
Cap-tain Ly-on sent Ma-jor Far-rar to the com- 
mand-er with this style of note : 

"You are foes to the Gov-ern-ment of the U-nit- 
ed States. You aid those who are now at war with 
it. The Pres-i-dent's proc-la-ma-tion is, that you and 
all such as are foes to the U-nit-ed States shall ' dis- 
perse.' You have not done so. I de-mand that you 
shall give up this camp. If you do not do so in 
peace, I am here to take it, all the same, and am in 
a fix to make my words good. You may have half 
an hour to make up your mind what to do." 

There were but few men in camp at the time, 
and if these had stood fight, the ar-my with Cap-tain 
Ly-on could have sent them to death in no time, for 
they were as fast as if in a trap, with the Un-ion-ists 
on all sides of them. 

What a crown of fame was lost to them ! But 
those '' trai-tors " would not let them take their heads 
off. The word was " Sur-ren-der." 

Aide-de-camp W. D. Wood came with word from 
Gen-er-al Frost to Cap-tain Ly-on. But Cap-tain 
Swee-ny had to speak for him, as just at that time 
Cap-tain Ly-on had met with a blow from the hoof 
of his own horse that sent him to the earth in a 
swoon. 'Tis said that some of the men in camp 



150 History of Missouri. 

were made real '' se-cesh " by this move on the 
part of Ly-on. When they were told that they 
would be pris-on-ers of war till they took the oath 
not to take up arms to hght the U-nit-ed States, 
some of them said they would die ere they took such 
an oath. Colo-nel John Knapp was one of these ; 
he broke his sword and flung it from him. The tale 
of Camp Jack-son is not yet all told, I grieve to say. 
It would seem that a crowd of folks went out to 
the camp in the wake of the troops ; with them were 
a lot of men and boys who made fun of this '' ar-my" 
that ''took" Camp Jack-son. When the pris-on-ers 
came out 'twixt the line of troops drawn up to let 
them pass out in their charge, the '' mob" grew wild 
with more than mere fun : they threw lumps of earth 
and stones and gave wild yells for Jeff Da-vis. This 
made the Un-ion troops fret with rage, but still they 
bore it, till some one in the " mob" sent a shot at 
one of the men in the com-pa-ny who had the pris- 
on-ers in charge. Then the harm was done — ere 
men knew how, in fact. The troops of Cap-tain Blan- 
dow-ski's com-pa-ny, 'tis said, were not told to fire 
till their Cap-tain had been struck, when the charge 
was made and folks were shot at right and left. Fif- 
teen fell dead on the spot, and some died from their 
wounds. Two of the pris-on-ers fell to rise no more ; 
the rest of the slain were those in the streets who 



Hate and Strife. 1 5 1 

had co-me just to look on. Some of them were 
wo-men and boys. Of the Un-ion troops one was 
shot dead, and Cap-tain Blan-dow-ski died the next 
day. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

HATE AND STRIFE. 

When night came the Ci-ty of St. Lou-is was 
not a safe place for those who took sides with those 
who had brought woe on the place by the rash move 
on Camp Jack-son. Those who to this hour had 
made up their minds not to take sides in the war, 
since their hearts were with the South, but yet did 
not wish to fight the '' Flag of the Un-ion," now 
grew hot with rage when they saw the streets strewn 
with dead and scenes of blood brought on by the 
men who had no right to use U-nit-ed States shot 
in so wild a way on cit-i-zens, though they were of 
the " mob" sort. 

Now men took sides and met hate with hate, 
and some bad deeds were done by the friends of 
those in the '* mob" who were hurt. 



1 5 2 History of Missou7'i. 

The blame was then thrust on all those who 
were '' se-cesh." When the news got through the 
State of this sad scene in St. Lou-is, war broke 
loose in all its worst forms. The hope for peace 
was past. 

Stirling Price's words : " All is lost. There is no 
hope now, " when he took the news to Gov-ern-or 
Jack-son at Jef-fer-son Ci-ty, tell well how long they 
did hope that Mis-sou-ri might be left in peace. 
Now it was war ! 

Gov-ern-or Jack-son put Price in com-mand of 
the Mis-sou-ri State Guard, with rank as Ma-jor 
Gen-er-al. 

In St. Lou-is May-or Dan-iel G. Tay-lor had to 
"pro-claim" to all that in the cause of peace folks 
should keep in there homes at night, and that small 
folk, boys and girls, must not leave their doors for 
three days. Bar-rooms must not sell beer or wine, 
but keep their blinds drawn and doors shut. 

In truth it is hard to think that our dear old 
St. Lou-is was once the place for such scenes that 
wo-men, boys, and girls did not dare to face the 
light of day in the streets. 

Those who could, left the town with all their 
dear ones, for this rash ''Yan-kee Ly-on" made 
things red-hot for those who were luke warm in the 
Un-ion cause, and struck fear to the souls of those 



Hate and Strife. 153 

who had the heart to cheer for the '' Bon-nie Blue 
Flag of the South." In such a state of siege Gen- 
er-al Har-ney found the place when he got back 
from Wash-ing-ton on the nth. Ly-on the Rash 
had done what he could, and his soul was full of 
proud glee. He had put the foe to flight, some two 
or three thou-sand had left, and more were in the act 
of flight when word came, " Thank God, Gen-er-al 
Har-ney is here! Our dear ones are safe!" Yes, 
Gen-er-al Har-ney was back. 

Some of the best men in the ci-ty had met, and 
thought it best to send word to Mr. Lin-coln that 
Cap-tain Ly-on was not the right man to have at the 
head of the Mil-i-ta-ry De-part-ment in Mis-sou-ri. 
That Gen-er-al Har-ney was the man who was best 
fit for a place where folks felt as the Mis-sou-ri-ans 
did just then. 

The Gov-ern-ment then sent Har-ney back, but 
not to stay long. The Blair men made sure to have 
their say, and soon Gen-er-al Har-ney was put out 
of the way, and Cap-tain Ly-ori made Brig-a-dier- 
Gen-er-al chief in com-mand ; and then, woe to the 
foes of the Un-ion in Mis-sou-ri ! 

But Mis-sou-ri did not go out of the Un-ion, and 
poor Ly-on, the rash, brave soul, soon lost his life at 
the bat-de of Wil-son's Creek. He knew not fear, 
he paid heed to no risk in the cause of the Un-ion. 



154 



History of Missouri. 



New of-fi-cers were put in the place of those 
who had gone to side with the Con-fed-er-a-cy. 
Ham-il-ton Gam-ble — who, with Mr. Yeat-man, 
had gone to Wash-ing-ton to get Mr. Lin-coln to 
send Gen-er-al Har-ney back to St. Lou-is — was 

made Gov-ern-or in place of 
Claib Jack-son. Wil-lard Hall 
was made Lieu-ten-ant-Gov-ern- 
or in place of Thom-as C. Rey- 
nolds, and Mor-de-cai Ol-i-ver 
was made Sec-re-ta-ry of State in 
place of Ben-ja-min F. Mas-sey. 
There were some black Re- 
pub-li-cans now in the State who 
thought the slaves ought to be 
Their hate for 



set free at once. 

those who had slaves was so 
great that they did not much care what harm came 
to them. But there were just and wise men left in 
the State, who did not think it was fair to rob men 
of that which they had paid their own cash for. 

Mn Breck-en-ridge was one ol these just men. 
He said slaves ought to be made free in the course of 
time, so that the mas-ters could be paid for them by 
an act of the Gov-ern-ment that made them free ; and 
that no more slaves should be brought into the State. 
Mr. Bush, of St. Lou-is, said there should be a 




GEN-ER-AL LY-ON. 



The Caphire of the First Secession Flag. 1 5 5 

law made that af-ter the year 1864 Mis-sou-ri should 
be a free State, but the slave should serve his mas- 
ter on the same terms as if he were still a slave till 
J u-ly 4, 1870. That the mas-ter ought not to be taxed 
for that black man's help as if he were still the white 
man's own prop-er-ty. 

Mr. Gra-vel-ly, of Ce-dar Coun-ty, said all '' Loy- 
al " men who had slaves should be paid $300 a head 
for them. And so the men in the new Leg-is-la-ture 
made plans to get rid of the slave theme. 

The time was close at hand, though, when one 
man, by a few strokes of his pen, put an end for all 
time in the U-nit-ed States, at least, to the word 
Sla-ver-y. 

Ham-il-ton R. Gam-ble made so fair and just a 
Gov-ern-or in those sad times that he was kept in the 
chair of chief of the State till 1864. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

THE CAPTURE OF THE FIRST SECESSION FLAG. 

When you read the head-line to this chap-ter 
your pulse will throb quick and fast, your eyes will 
flash, and your heart thrill. You will think of a field 



156 History of Missouri. 

of strife where foes meet as man to man. The one 
who wins gives a cry of joy. His foe is down, and 
his own wounds give him great pain, but that is as 
nought to him. He is a he-ro. In his hand is the 
blood-moist flag of the foe. To pluck it from one 
who is a man as strong as his own true, brave self 




ST. LOUIS AR-SE-NAL IN 1 86 1. 



is a erand deed. I know you must love to hear of 
such deeds. It is too bad I can't tell you a tale of 
such a fine deed of pluck when the first " con-fed-er- 
ate flag was cap-tured." 



The Captzirc of the First Secession Flag. 157 

It came to pass in this way : Word came to 
Gen-er-al Ly-on at the Ar-se-nal that the '' se-cesh " 
were real bad down in Po-to-si, and the Un-ion men 
thought it was time to put a stop to their cheers for 
Jeff Da-vis. 

Gen-er-al Ly-on bade Cap-tain Coles, of Com- 
pa-ny A, Fifth Reg-i-ment, U-nit-ed States Vol-un- 
teers, take all the troops he might need down to 
Po-to-si, and put a check on the " reb-el " fun. 

The Cap-tain was soon on his way, and in a short 
time the whole town was in the hands of the Un-ion 
force. Troops were put on guard at all the homes 
where " se-cesh" dwelt. A fine pile of lead was 
found in the house of one man who made use of his 
place of trade to aid the '' reb-els " with lead for their 
arms and to make bul-lets with. This man's name 
was John Dean. He was made a pris-on-er of war 
and brought up to the Ar-se-nal. They went from 
house to house and took all thino^s that had sio^ns of 
good-will to the South about them. 

At last, with some thir-ty hors-es, a lot of arms, 
some se-ces-sion u-ni-form cloth and half-made u-ni- 
forms of the " gray" kind, the Cap-tain and his brave 
boys got on the train to come back to St. Lou-is. 

The train had to stop at De So-to. There the 
Un-ion troops had a view of a scene that made the 
loy-al blood boil. A pole loo feet high had been 



158 History of Missouri. 

put up that day. Great throngs of boys and girls, 
men and wo-men were there met to raise a flag. Not 
the stars and stripes — oh dear, no ; but the flag of 
'' se-ces-sion !" 

To rush from the train and scare the crowd out 
of their wits was soon done, and the Un-ion flag put 
up. But where was that reb-el flag ? The pole had 
stood there bare of all sims of re-bel-lion. The flae 
must be in the town, and the Cap-tain was bound to 
have it. 

A squad of his men were sent to search for it. 
Some one told them where the flag was to be found. 
The troops spread on all sides of the house, and Dn 
Frank-lin, with Ser-geant Walk-er, went in and made 
a search through all the rooms, but could not find it. 
At last he thought it odd that the la-dy of the house 
sat so still on a chair, so he went up to her and told 
her to get up. 

At first she would not do so, but the doc-tor 
knew how to coax in a way that brought her to 
her feet right quick, and lo, there fell from her 
skirts a '' se-cesh" flag thir-ty feet long and nine feet 
wide ! What a grand cap-ture ! The Doc-tor went 
with proud step and in high glee to show his prize 
to the Cap-tain and the troops. 

With songs of Un-ion joy they came back to the 
Ar-se-nal to show Gen-er-al Ly-on some fif-ty pris- 



The Capture of the First Secession Flag. 159 

on-ers they had brought with them, men who were 
caught with " sword and pis-tol " not by their side, but 
with lots of red-hot " reb-el " blood, the tone of which 
made the air ring with wild cries for Jeff Da-vis and 
se-ces-sion. 

The Boys in Blue in camp at the Ar-se~nal were 
full of pa-tri-ot-ism and fight ; but they had to wait 
there for word to march. And time hung long on 
their hands, so this prize of a ''reb-el flag" was a 
fine thing on which to vent some of the pent-up vim 
in their souls. That night, by the light of a big 
camp-fire, the first Con-fed-er-ate flag cap-tured by 
the Un-ion troops was by some of those troops rent 
to shreds, while wild cheers for the Un-ion and the 
stars and stripes came from throats that soon had a 
call to give the warm blood to the last drop on the 
field of strife. 




^^^ /z^.^^^^^^^^^j^^^-:^^ 



1 60 



General Fremont in Missouri. i6i 



CHAPTER XIX. 

GENERAL FREMONT IN MISSOURI. 

On the 13th of June Gen-er-al Ly-on and his 
troops set out for the field of war in Mis-sou-ri. 
Colo-nel Ches-ter Hard-ing was left in com-mand at 
St. Lou-is. 

. On the 26th of Ju-ly Gen. John C. Fre-mont 
came to take com-mand as chief of the De-part-ment 
of the West. Gen-er-al Fre-mont's name will, in 
some sense, rank with that of the brave Al-ex-an-der 
Spots-wood of the old Col-on-ial days of Vir-gin-ia, 
who led the way to the heights of the Blue Ridge, 
where white man's foot had not trod, till he found a 
path. It was for deeds of pluck like this that Fre- 
mont made fame long ere the war of the States. He 
led the way o'er the wild, rude Rock-y Moun-tains, 
and got for it the proud name of The Path-finder. 

When Gen-er-al Fre-mont got to St. Lou-is he 
sought a good place for his head-quar-ters, and found 
it at the cor-ner of Paul Street and Chau-teau 
Av-e-nue. A fine house and grounds, the home of 
Col. Josh-u-a Brant. 



1 62 History of Missouri. 

This, in the first place, did not please the friends 
of Gen-er-al Ly-on, who thought the Ar-se-nal ought 
to be the place for the Gen-er-al as well as the troops. 
They did not want to see style nor an air of state 



THE BRANT MAN-SION, FRE-MONT's HEAD-QU AR-TERS, ST. LOU-IS. 

that made one think a king had come to make here 
his roy-al head-quar-ters. 

Some claim that if Fre-mont had paid more heed 
to the needs of Gen-er-al Ly-on and the troops in the 



General Frtniont in Missouri. 



163 




I 



164 ^ Histoiy of Ulissoitri. 

field, Ly-on would not have met death as he did with 
so few troops to aid him ; and some say Ly-on would 
not wait for troops to be sent to him. He was keen 
for a fight, and went at the foe with a rush, nor gave 
fair thought to the brave men he led to their death 
ere the army was in the right trim to meet the foe 
on the field of strife with Gen-er-als Price, McCul- 
loch, and Rains to lead them. 

Gen-er-al McCul-loch's ar-my con-sist-ed of the 
First Di-vis-ion- com-mand-ed by him-self ; the Sec- 
ond Di-vis-ion,. by Gen-er-al Pearce, of Ar-kan-sas, 
and the Third Di-vis-ion, Gen-er-al Steen. The 
Mis-sou-ri troops were under com-mand of Ma-jor- 
Gen-er-al Ster-ling Price, and were as follows : The 
Ad-vance Guard, six com-pan-ies, under Brig-a-dier- 
Gen-er-al Rains ; First Bri-gade, Colo-nel Rich-ard 
Han-son Weight-man, and oth-er di-vis-ions and bri- 
gades un-der Brig-a-dier-Gen-er-al Wil-liam Y. Slack, 
of Chil-li-cothe (for-mer-ly of Boone Coun-ty) ; Brig- 
a-dier-Gen-er-al John B. Clark, Se-nior, of How-ard 
Coun-ty; Brig-a-dier-Gen-er-al J. H. McBride, of 
Greene Coun-ty, and Brig-a-dier-Gen-er-al Mon-roe 
M. Par-sons, of Cole. All arms of the ser-vice were 
rep-re-sent-ed a-mong the Mis-sou-ri troops — in-fan- 
try, cav-al-ry, and ar-til-le-ry. (See of-fi-cial re-ports 
of Gen-er-als McCul-loch, Price, and Clark in the 
" Re-bel-lion Rec-ord," Vol. 2, pp. 506-11). 



' General F7'emont 171 Missotiri. 165 

Ly-on's col-umn con-sist-ed of three bri-gades, com- 
mand-ed re-spect-ive-ly by Ma-jor S. D. Stur-gis, 
Lieu-ten-ant-Colo-nel An-drews, and Colo-nel Deitz- 
ler. Ma-jor Stur-gis' brl-gade was com-posed of a 
bat-tal-ion of reg-u-lar in-fan-try un-der Cap-tain 
Plum-mer; Cap-tain Tot-ten's light bat-ter-y of six 
piec-es, a bat-tal-ion of Mis-sou-ri vol-un-teers, un-der 
Ma-jor Os-ter-haus, Cap-tain Wood's com-pa-ny of 
mount-ed Kan-sas vol-un-teers, and a com-pa-ny of reg- 
u-lar cav-al-ry, un-der Lieu-ten-ant Can-field. Lieu- 
ten-ant-Colo-nel An-drews' bri-gade con-sist-ed of Cap- 
tain Steele's bat-tal-ion of reg-u-lars, Lieu-ten-ant 
Du-bois' light bat-ter-y of four piec-es, and the First 
Mis-sou-ri Vol-un-teers. Deitz-lers bri-gade was 
com-posed of the First and Sec-ond Kan-sas and 
First Lo-wa Vol-un-teers, and two hun-dred mount- 
ed Mis-sou-ri Home Guards. Si-gel's col-umn was 
made up of the Third and Fifth' Mis-sou-ri Vol-un- 
teers. One com-pa-ny of cav-al-ry un-der Cap-tain 
Carr, one of dra-goons un-der Lieu-ten-ant Far-rand, 
while Lieu-ten-ant Lath-rop led a com-pa-ny of re- 
cruits with a light bat-ter-y of six guns. 

The worst time of all in Mis-sou-ri was at hand 
through the act of Gen-er-al Fre-mont, when the 
news came that Ly-on had met the foe, and was 
slain at Wil-son's Creek. 

He put Mar-tial Law in force. This meant 



1 66 



Histoi-y of ]\Iisso2iri. 



woe to all who by speech or deed gave aid to the 
foes of the U-nit-ed States Gov-ern-ment. Homes 
and lands were con-fis-ca-ted, and their slaves set 
free. Wo-men or men were to be shot if found 
guil-ty of ''active sympathy" by the ''court" of those 
who tried them. Ma-jor J. McKin-stry was made 
Provost Mar-shal. 

No man, wo-man, or child could leave the ci-ty 
or State if they did not have a 
pass which said who and what 
they were, what age, and what 
weight and size they were, where 
bound and irom where they had 
come, and " un-der pen-al-ty of 
death" they gave their word not 
to say or do aught to aid the foe, 
but be "loy-al to the U-nit-ed 
States." 

This was force with a hi oh 




nanc 



1 to 



DC sure 



It gave mean 



men a right to rob and kill on 
all sides, and say 'twas done to the foe. Where 
great hosts of men go forth to war, some oi them will 
be low and bad; thus all through Mis-sou-ri much 
harm was done by the U-ni-on troops. This gave 
rise to new hate on the part of those who had to 
bear wrongs thus put on them. From this sprang 



General Fi'-cmont in Mzssouj'i. 167 

what some Un-ion men, who would see but one side 
of the sceiies, call those " in-fa-mous reb-el raids." 
Were there no " Un-ion raids," let me ask ? Can 
these men speak the truth and say. No ? 

All the bad luck that came to the Un-ion troops 
in the field at this time was put to the charge of 
Gen-er-al Fre-mont, who, by the 27th of Sep-tem-ber, 
had his force in or-der for the field of war. With 
his so well-known-to-fame body guard and Ma-jor 
Za-gon-yi and 20,000 men in charge of Gener-als 
Hunt-er, Pope, Sig-el, McKin-stry and Asboth, with 
eigh-ty-six piec-es of ar-til-le-ry, Gen-er-al Fre-mont 
went hence to drive Price and the foe out of the State. 

But the heads of the War Department at Wash- 
ing-ton were not deaf to the cry of harsh rule that 
came from Mis-sou-ri. Si-mon Cam-er-on, Sec-re- 
ta-ry of War, and Ad-ju-tant-Gen-er-al Town-send 
had come on to see what the cause of the cry was. 

To be brief, for I am not to write a his-to-ry 
of the war, but just to sketch the main part 
Mis-sou-ri took m it, Gen-er-al Fre-mont was soon 
left out of the war plans of the State. The next 
four years brought sad, hard times to Alis-sou-ri- 
ans. The lands and homes were laid waste, and 
when the troops were on the march here and 
there they did not stop to ask if there was food to 
spare from those who were left at home. They took 



1 68 History of Missouri. 

all they could lay hands on, for such is the fate of 
war. 

A cute tale is told of Gen-er-al Grant. Ere 
yet he had won his high rank he led some troops in 
south-east Mis-sou-ri on the track of Jeff Thomp- 
son, who was said to be in, or near, the Ar-kan-sas 
line with his "wild boys." The '*ad-vance guard" 
of the Un-ion troops was Lieu-ten-ant Wick-field, of 
an In-di-a-na cav-al-ry re-gi-ment, with eight men. 

They did not find the road rich with milk and 
hon-ey, it seems, and they felt in sore need of a 
square meal. When they had been on the march 
for three days, the " ra-tions " they had brought with 
them gave out, and they made a halt at the first 
farm they came to, and thought they would see what 
could be done in the way of a bite to eat up at the 
house. They had a plan in view. Lieu-ten-ant 
Wick-field then rode up in grand style and said to 
the dame who came to the door : 

'' Ma-dam, could you give me and my staff a 
sup and bite ?" 

"And pray, who may you and your staff be that 
I should feed you T spoke up the dame, with quick 
wit. 

" Ma-dam," said Wick-field with a bow and tip 
of his hat, " I am Brig-a-dier-Gen-er-al Grant. 

At this the dame and her help flew round with 



General Fremont in Missouri. 169 

all speed and soon a fine meal was set out — at least to 
those men the meal was first class ; — to those who 
starve and thirst the most plahi of food is fine and 
good. When there was naught left to eat, they gave 
the dame sweet thanks and rode off. They had not 
been eone lonor when Gen-er-al Grant and his staff 
rode up. The Gen-er-al said to the dame if she 
would be so kind as to cook a meal for them he 
would pay her well. 

" No. I'll do no such thing !" said she in a 
rage. ''Gen-er-al Grant and his staff have just been 
here, and eat up all there was in the house but one 
pump-kin pie." 

" Ah, ha ! So Gen-er-al Grant has been to see 
you, has he ? Will you please tell me your name ?" 

" My name is Sel-vidge." 

Gen-er-al Grant gave her a half dol-lar, and said : 
*' Please keep that for the pie, and keep the pie till 
I send for it in a short time." 

The dame said she would do so. That night, 
when all the troops were met to camp, the as-sist-ant 
Ad-ju-tant-Gen-er-al read this or-der in the face of 
all the troops. 

Head-quar-ters Ar-my in the Field, 
Spe-cial Or-ders No. ^. 

Lieu-ten-ant Wick-field, of the I n-di-an-a Cav- 

al-ry, hav-ing on this day eat-en ev-er-y-thing in Mrs. 



1 70 History of JMissouri. 

Sel-vidge's house at the cross-ing of the I-ron-ton and 
Po-ca-hon-tas and Black Riv-er and Cape Gi-rar- 
deau roads, ex-cept one pump-kin pie, Lieu-ten-ant 
Wick-field is here-by or-dered to re-turn with an es- 
cort of one hun-dred cav-al-ry, and eat that pie al-so. 

U. S. Grant, 
Brig.-Gen., Commanding, 



CHAPTER XX. 

GRATIOT STREET PRISON. 

Harsh deeds were done by North and South in 
those sad days of war, but if the walls of old Gra-tiot 
Street Pris-on could talk what tales they could have 
told of woe and heart-ache that would, in some way, 
match the dark side of An-der-son-ville, though this 
pris-on was in the midst of Gov-ern-ment wealth in 
the heart of the Ci-ty of St. Lou-is, the home of good 
deeds and kind works. 

But war makes fierce the heart of men. A friend 
who gets to be a foe at such a time, turns out to be 
a foe in whom all sense of old-time love is dead or 
what is worse, love rane to rank hate. It was a 



Gratiot Street Prison. 



iji 



queer pile of stone and brick, that pris-on, known in 
old times as McDow-ell's Col-lege, the first great 
med-i-cal and sur-gi-cal school built in Mis-sou-ri. 
Some odd tales are told of the doc-tor whose name 
it bore, and whose fame as a great sur-geon is world- 
wide. 




OLD GRA-TIOT STREET PRIS-ON. 



Folks now grown old and gray tell how, when 
they were young, they would fear to go near the grim, 
gray pile for fear some '' spook "of the poor dead folk 
who had been '' cut up " in the place to serve the 



1 72 History of Missouri. 

cause of sci-ence, might be seen in the gloom of the 
deep al-cove bal-co-ny of the Doc-tor's house, or in 
the long, slim win-dows of the stone Col-lege. 

Groans and moans might in truth have been 
heard when the old sur-geon, who was heart and 
soul " se-cesh," was in the place no more, and the 
Gov-ern-ment took the prop-er-ty to make a pris-on 
of it. 

To it were brought men and wo-men who would 
have wrought the Un-ion cause all the harm they 
could, if they were free to work their will. But woe 
and at times death was dealt out to those who were 
brought here. Near the close of the war sev-en 
men were sent to their death at one time, in the 
yard of the pris-on. They had brought death to 
Un-ion men, and much harm to the Un-ion cause. 
Thus a sketch of old McDow-ell's Col-lege may well 
form a page in the His-to-ry of Mis-sou-ri. 

In 1865 the old sur-geon and foun-der came 
back to St. Lou-is, and the old Col-lege, with its war- 
worn face, once more gave voice to sci-ence and skill 
by which to aid health and limb, sight and speech. 

Dr. Jos-eph McDow-ell died in 1868, and in 
1873 ^ "^^^^ med-i-cal col-lege was built, and 
McDow-ell's Col-lege, old Gra-tiot Street Pris-on, is 
part of the his-to-ry of a great and sad past. 

The "new" school of med-i-cine, the Hahne- 



Gratiot Street Prison. 



73 



mann sys-tem of Hom-oe-op-a-thy, was brought to 
Mls-sou-rl some time in the years 1 840-1 850, and 
it came to stay and thrive in spite of the ill-will 
of the '' old " school. Some of the men in the front 




MIS-SOU-RI MED-I-CAL COL-LEGE, ST. LOUIS. 



ranks who, with their skill and high aims, did so 
much to break the tough neck of Blind Pre-ju-dice, 
which stands to fight — to the death if it can — all 
things new that bid fair to rob the old of some of its 
fame, bear the names of Drs. Gran-ger, Stein-es-tel, 



1 74 History of JMissonri. 

Tem-ple, Fish-er, and Corn-stock. Some of these 
have since gone to their long rest, but the ''School" 
lives on and has grown vast in fame through the 
good work of those who, by their keen skill, save 
life and bring health to man-kind with Ho-moe-o- 
path-ic treat-ment in Mis-sou-ri. 



CHAPTER XXI. 

"POOR SAMBO" IS MADE A FREE MAN. 

In 1864 Thom-as C. Fletch-er, the first real 
" Black Re-pub-li-can " — that means one who thinks 
a ne-gro has the same right to vote, and live, and do 
as the white man does — was made Gov-ern-or of the 
State. He was the first Re-pub-li-can to hold that 
high of-fice in any slave State. George Smith was 
made Lieu-ten-ant-Gov-ern-or. Those who were in 
heart with the South had now no voice in the State, 
so of course could not vote. 

Gov-ern-or Fletch-er was a man of work. He 
took up arms for the Fed-er-al cause when the war 
first broke out ; and, as far as he could do so, he took 
up arms, as it were, to put out of of-fice all such men 




^<-^- V-N^ 



FIRST RE-PUB-LI-CAN GOV-ERN-OR OF ANY SLAVE STATE. 175 



176 History of ]\Iissou7'i. 

as held warm dem-o-crat-ic views. To him at this 
time there could be no two sides to the Un-ion cause. 
As soon as he took the "chair of State" the 
slave theme was brought to the front. A con-ven- 
tion was held in St. Lou-is on the 6th of Jan-u-a-ry, 
1865, and on the i ith of the same month a " Proc- 
la-ma-tion of Free-dom " was born. I will put it 
down here in the words of the Gov-ern-or, as they 
are part of the State's His-to-ry. 

Proc-la-ma-tion of Free-dom. 

Ex-EC-U-TIVE De-part-ment. 
Ci-TY OF Jef-fer-son, Mo., Jan-u-a-ry ii, 1864. 

It hav-ing pleased Di-vine Prov-i-dence to in- 
spire to right-eous ac-tion, the sov-er-eign peo-ple of 
Mis-sou-ri, who, through their del-e-gates in con- 
ven-tion as-sem-bled, with prop-er le-gal au-thor-i-ty 
and so-lem-ni-ty, have this day or-dained : 

"'' That here-af-ter, in this State, there shall be 
nei-ther sla-ver-y nor in-vol-un-ta-ry serv-i-tude, ex- 
cept in pun-ish-ment of crime, where-of the par-ty 
shall have been du-ly con-vict-ed ; and all per-sons 
held to ser-vice or la-bor as slaves, are heie-by de- 
clared free ;" 

" Now, there-fore, by au-thor-i-ty of the Su- 
preme Ex-ec-u-tive pow-er vest-ed in me by the Con- 
sti-tu-tion of Mis-sou-ri, I, Thom-as C. Fletch-er, 



" Poor Sambo " is Made a Free Man, i T] 

Gov-ern-or of the State of Mis-sou-ri, do pro-claim 
that hence-forth and for-ev-er no per-son with-In the 
ju-ris-dic-tion of this State shall be sub-ject to an-y 
a-bridg-ment of lib-er-ty, ex-cept such as the law 
shall pre-scribe for the com-mon good, or know an-y 
mas-ter but God. 

In tes-ti-mo-ny where-of I have here-un-to signed 
my name and caused the great seal of the State to 

_^ be af-fixed, at the Ci-ty of Jef-fer-son, the e-lev- 
|is. j- enth day of Jan-u-a-ry, a.d., eigh-teen hun- 

^^ dred and six-ty-five. 

Thom-as C. Fletch-er. 

By the Gov-ern-or : 

Fran-CIS Rod-man, Scc-re-ta-ty of State. 

'' Poor Sam-bo" was a slave no more ! But the 
poor white man had a hard time of it all o'er the 
State if he was not '' clad " with an oath that 
bound him with chains so strong that he got to 
be a slave to the will of those who bound him as 
fast as the bonds of the black man. Young 
and old, men and wo-men, had to take this oath 
of Loy-al-ty to the Gov-ern-ment ; and those who 
would not take it were thrust in pris-on cells though 
they had no wish to harm the Gov-ern-ment, but felt 
that to force them to take such oath was an act 



78 



Histo7y of Missouri. 



that left white men but small chance to be as *' free" 



as the ne-gro. 



But the times were bad in Mis-sou-ri ; ''raids" 
were made in all parts of the State. Un-ion-ists said 




PLUCK BRINGS LUCK. 



folk who would not take the " test-oath must needs 
be foes to good rule. Let that be as it may, good 
came out of it in a short time to the State. The 
school-house doors were once more thrown wide for 
small folks to take up the tasks that war had put a 
stop to. Plans were made to bring to the eyes of 



;iii 




"m^iii^jiiiii 



i8o History of Missouri. 

the world the good things of our State so that new 
folks would come and make their homes with us. 

In 1864 there were not quite one mil-lion souls 
in the State. At the end of Gov-ern-or Fletch-er's 
term, 1868, a half a mil-lion more folks had come to 
build up the wreck war had made in Mis-sou-ri. 

L. U. Reaves states that the *'in-crease of pop- 
u-la-tion from 1870 to 1880 was 26 per cent." Since 
then the growth has been still more great, I am told. 
But let those folks who have a dread that there is 
no more room in this great Re-pub-lic for such of 
our race as wish to find homes in the New World 
be of good cheer; there is wealth in the soil of Mis- 
sou-ri, and there is room for all who seek it with 
brave will and strong hands, for Pluck will bring 
the Luck in our fine State, where the air is sweet 
with sone and the earth is fair with bloom. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

THE WAR WOUND HEALS. 

That thorn in the heart of the Re-pub-lic, — 
slav-ery — had been drawn. With it had come some 
sore blood. But the great wound was bound to heal 
with the balm of time and toil. The men of Mis- 



The War Wound Heals. i8i 

sou-ri are not of the kind who He down to sleep and 
say night is come when a cloud hides the sun, or 
when an e-clipse seems to turn bright day to night 
for a short time. They were up and in fine trim 
for work when the cloud of war had gone by. 

The chief need of the time was a safe and sure 
and quick means to link the State with the world 
on the east side of the Mis-sis-sip-pi. Trans-fer of 
folks and freight by boat was all right while the 
great stream was free from ice. But there were 
times when a stop had to be put to trade and trav-el 
for hours, and once in a great while for a day or 
two, till the ice was firm so that planks could be laid 
on which om-ni-buses wnth folks and trans-fer 
wa-o"ons with freig^ht could drive o'er the stream to 
meet the trains. 

We must have a bridge, said St. Louis Brains, 
Pluck, and Cash. On the 21st of Feb-ru-ary the 
plans for it took form, with James B. Eads as chief 
en-gi-neer and Hen-ry Flad as as-sist-ant chief en-gi- 
neer. A steel bridge was built at the cost of ten mil- 
lion dol-lars. The whole length of the bridge is 6,220 
feet. It has three spans and is fifty-four feet wide. 

From the bridge was then built a tun-nel, at the 
cost of a mil-lion dol-lars more, which led to a large, 
fine de-pot where trains come to a halt with their 
live and still freight from all parts of the world. 



1 82 History of Missouri. 

There is one thing to be borne in mind when 
men speak of Mis-sou-ri, and of this it would scarce 
be fair not to make note. The small towns, like the 
ci-ties of the State, have the stamp of en-ter-prise 
on the face of their mode of life. 

And the folks love to have a good time. They 
know that " all work and no play makes Jack a dull 
boy." The li-bra-ry and the thea-tre give proof that 
''dull boys" do not thrive in Mis-sou-ri. But the 
chief pet and pride of Mis-sou-rians is the ex-po-si- 
tion and fair which is held in St. Lou-is in the fall 
of each year. 

As long ere the war as 1855, some men of brains 
who had in view the good of the State laid plans for 
this fair. The char-ter for it was made out De-cem- 
ber, 1855. Good men soon made up the funds to 
form an as-so-ci-a-tion with means to go on with the 
good work. By the 5th of May, 1856, there was a 
board of di-rect-ors and of-fi-cers with well laid plans 
for the St. Lou-is Ag-ri-cult-u-ral and Me-chan-i-cal 
As-so-ci-a-tion. 

Rich-ard Bar-ret was made pres-i-dent ; T. 
Grims-ley, A. Har-per, and H. C. Hart, vice-pres-i- 
dents ; H. S. Tur-ner, treas-u-rer, and G. O. Kalb, 
a-gent and sec-re-tary. A fine large tract of land 
was bought in the north-west-ern part of the ci-ty, 
and the grounds were soon laid out for the fair. 




GOV-ERN-OR OF MIS-SOU-Rl 



1 84 History of Alissoziri. 

$50,000 in pre-mi-ums was the sum held out to farm- 
ers, in-vent-ors, and stock rais-ers far and near. They 
came, they saw, and the As-so-ci-a-tion was the con- 
quer-or. 

When the war storm came, these Fair Grounds 
came to be a field of tents o'er which the U-nion flag 
held guard and ward. When peace came, these men 
sprang to the work once more. All trace of arms 
was thrust from sight. Where sol-dier guards had 
made rude tracks o'er sward and bed of green, the 
Zo-o-log-i-cal Gar-den, that great joy for old and 
young, rose to life. Great build-ings were put up to 
hold the prod-uct of the land and loom and the in- 
ven-tor's skill, and fine new sheds for stock of all 
kinds made the new-born Fair Grounds a thing of 
life it would be hard to find in any sis-ter State to 
this day. But true " grit" does not know such a 
word as stop. 

There is an Ex-po-si-tion build-ing, not in the Fair 
Grounds, but in the heart of the ci-ty, where sci-ence, 
skill, and mu-sic meet each year, and where Mis- 
sou-ri is host to the hosts of folks who come from 
all the States to see what new thing Brains and 
Pluck has done for the use and good of man. 

The last week of this Ex-po-si-tion is the great 
week in Mis-sou-ri. Then St. Lou-is dons her fine 
robes and meets her euests in a blaze of \w\\i and 




THE STREETS OF ST- LOU-IS " VEIL-ED PROPH-ET's " WEEK. 185 



1 86 History of Missouri. 

pride. A great pa-rade is held in which all trades 
take part. In this week the chief guest is the 
Veiled Proph-et. He comes all the way from the 
sand-laid plains of Past, in old Sphinx Land, to 
have a peep at the youth and brain and strength in 
the fair vale of a great South-west. 

His eyes, that age will not dim, grow moist with 
love born of hopes he dare not give voice to, when 
he looks at the boys and girls who come out to greet 
him ; but his thoughts run thus : 

What stout brave lads and sweet bright maids 
are here in scores ! What will they do with their 
young lives ? The road is made for you. The path 
is clear. March on with head held high and soul 
kept clean. You are the hands with which the 
Great Cre-a-tor works. Learn, then, to think. Let 
thought take form till all the world must turn to see 
what you have done to bring such worth and fame to 
the home of the Mis-sou-ri-an. 



THE END, 



The Latest and Best of America 

BETTER AND BRIGHTER THAN I 

Belford'S ■ Ar 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



014 572 793 5 



— ± eae - 30 

A PERFECT CHARM FOR THE CHILDREN. 

Edited by THOMAS W. HANDFORD. 

Illustrated with Full-Page Original Illustrations by TRUE W. WILLIAMS. 

WITH HANDSOME COLORED FRONTISPIECE. 

An American Book for American Children. 

FULL OF STORIES, POEMS, INCIDENTS OF ADVENTURE. FABLES, BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES, 
HISTORIC SCENES, SABBATH CHIMES, DOINGS OF THE DAUGHTERS OF THE KING. ETC. 

ALL DESIGNED FOR THE PLEASURE AND PROFIT OF THE YOUNC. 

BELFORD'S ANNUAL 

IS WORTHY OF A PLACE IN EVERY HOME IN AMERICA. 



PRICE 



LARGE QUARTO, BOUND IN ILLUMINATED CHROMO-LITHOGRAPH COVERS. 
IN EXTRA ENGLISH CLOTH WITH HANDSOME GOLD AND INK DESIGN, - 



$1.50 
2.00 



NeWSOEALERS AND BOOKSELLERS WILL OO WELL TO SEND FOR 
OUR TERMS ON THIS CREAT OFFER. 




12.50 for $5.00 



A CLEAR 

SAVING OF 

$7.50 



THE MOST REMARKABLE LITERARY OFFER EVER MADE. 



WE WILL SEND TO EACH NEW SUBSCRIBER A SET OF 



Goorp Eliot's Coilete Woils 

In Six large, 12mo volumes, cciitninini^- i.PDO pages, cleg-imriy lioimd in the best 
English cloth; large, clear type, guod jjaper, yold and ink embossing; each set in a 
neat box. Published at $10.00, and 




ACTTTAl/SrZTi, O'J x6»4. 

BELFORD'S MAGAZINE 

For one year, postpaid, (H)ntainin« o^ er 
1,800 pages of reading matter. PuliHshed at 
$3..)0. Besides a ooTuplete originul novel 
from the pen of sohie foremost American 
novelist, the magazine contains vigorous 
discussions on the important political, eco- 
ncjmic, social and literary questions of the 
day, by the best authorities, and articles, 
.sketches, poems and stories by gifted and 
popular writers. 
The set of Eliot includes At)AM Bede, 

ROMOI^A, FEI.IX HOI.T, MIDDIjEMARC h, 

Daniet. T)ebom)A, Sti.AS Mauneh, The 
Mill, on the Floss, Scenes from Cler- 
iCA L Life, Theophrastus Such, and J dbai^ 
ANr) other Poems. 

Over 2,000 newspapei-s ftpoak in the high- 
est possible terms of BKr-FORO's MAGAZI^E. 
Subscriptions can hesrin with any number, 
as each number is i-omi)lete in itself, and 
may be sent to any of our offlces. j^ 

BELFORD, CLARKE & CO., PUBLISHERS, 

CHICAGO: 109 and in Wabash Aue. NEW YORK ! 22 East 18th St. SAN FRANCISCO ; 224 Bush St. 



